Redmond John Brough
Redmond John Brough (c1847-1883)
1886 Obituary [1]
REDMOND JOHN BROUGH was the eldest son of the late Mr. Secker Brough, Judge of the County Court of the County of Huron, Ontario.
After preliminary studies at the University of Toronto and elsewhere, he began the active practice of his profession in January 1870, as assistant to Mr. Thomas Weatherald, P.L.S., on the Ontario Government survey for the drainage of the Grey Swamp, in the county of Huron. This comprised all the preliminary engineering work necessary for the preparation of plans and estimates for the drainage of this tract of country. After the conclusion of the field work, he had the preparation of all the plans and sections, as well as other office work.
In June 1870 he received an appointment on the engineering staff of the Great Western Railway of Canada, under Mr. George Lowe Reid. M.Inst.C.E., the Chief-Engineer, and was engaged on the preliminary and location surveys of the Canada Air-Line Railway, until the autumn of the same year.
In November he was appointed junior Assistant-Engineer on the work of construction of the western division of that road, under Mr. J. St. V. Caddy, Division Engineer. In the following year, 1871, he was advanced to the grade of First Assistant Engineer, which position he held up to the date of the completion of construction in July 1873. He had during that time experience of the whole construction, from the commencement of the earthwork of the road-bed, to the completion of the various structures upon it, as well as the station buildings, yards, watering-stations, &c. While employed upon the Air-Line Railway, he was entrusted with an inspection of the Mooretown Branch of the Canada Southern Railway, and reported upon the progress of that work to the Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway.
In July 1873, the construction of the Air-Lino having come to a conclusion, he was appointed to the charge of a section of the work of double-tracking the main line of the Great Western Railway, under Mr. H. C. Symmes, Division Engineer, in which position he continued until November of the same year, when the work was completed. At that date, upon the recommendation of Mr. John Kennedy, M.Inst.C.E., then Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway, he received an appointment on the Toronto Waterworks, as assistant to the Chief Engineer, Mr. P. A. Peterson, M.Inst.C.E. From that time forward he served as Assistant-Engineer in charge of various portions of this work.
In 1876 Mr. Peterson resigned the position of Chief-Engineer and Mr. Brough was appointed Resident-Engineer in charge of the construction of the works under the late Water commission. Upon the transfer of the works from the Water Commission to the Corporation, in the beginning of 1878, he was appointed Permanent Engineer and Manager.
In 1878, he succeeded the late Mr. Frank Shanly as City Engineer of Toronto, which position he held up to the time of his death. On the 12th of July, 1883, while inspecting a portion of the city works, he was thrown from his carriage, breaking his thigh and receiving serious internal injuries, which resulted in his death on the 2lst of the same month, in the thirty-seventh year of his age.
Mr. Brough was noted for his strict conscientiousness in the discharge of duty, and for the uniform kindness and impartiality with which he treated all who were engaged in carrying on the works under his control. His abilities as an engineer were of a high order, and would have ensured him a brilliant future had not death put an end to a career in which he was already making rapid advancement. Personally he enjoyed the respect of all who knew him, and endeared himself to a circle of faithful friends, by whom his death is sincerely mourned.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 2nd of December, 1879. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.