William Smith (1823-1892)
William Smith (1823-1892)
1892 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM SMITH, son of the late Mr. J. H. Smith, was born at Elphin, county Roscommon, Ireland, on the 23rd of June, 1823.
He was educated at Elphin Diocesan School and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1844.
In the following year he entered the service of the Board of Works in Ireland, in which he remained until 1852, being employed for the. first half of that time as an Assistant Engineer on the Shannon Navigation Works, and for the latter half as an Inspector of Drainage and other works under the Irish Lands Improvement Acts. He then acted for nearly two years as Manager of the Brighton Waterworks.
In February, 1855, Mr. Smith was appointed an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department of the Government of India. He was posted to the office in Calcutta of the Civil Architect of the Presidency Division, and in the following year was placed in charge of the survey and of the preparation of designs and estimates for bridging and metalling the Jessore Road.
On the completion of that work, he acted for a short time in 1857 as Civil Architect, and was then appointed Executive Engineer of the Burdwan Division, which included the construction of the Damooda and Adji embankments and of civil buildings in the Burdwan and Bancoorah districts. He held that post for five years, acting for several months in 1860 as Superintending Engineer of the Burdwan Circle.
In 1862 he was posted to the Presidency Division as Civil Architect, and two years later was promoted to the rank of Superintending Engineer, transferred to the South Eastern Circle, and appointed President of the "Bengal Cyclone Relief Committee,” for his services in connection with which he received the thanks of the Government of Bengal.
In July, 1865, Mr. Smith accepted, with the consent of the Government, the post of Chief Engineer to the Waterworks of the Calcutta Municipality, and proceeded to England to prepare plans and specifications, and to arrange for the construction of the works by contract. Plans had been prepared a year before by the late Mr. William Clark, whom ill-health had compelled to resign the appointment of Engineer to the Municipality. Mr. Clark's project, however, was considerably modified by Mr. Smith, and the works were successfully completed early in 1870, when he reverted to his former appointment of Superintending Engineer of the South Eastern Circle.
Two years later he was transferred to the charge of the Presidency Circle, and was nominated a Fellow of the Calcutta University, and in 1873 a Commissioner of the Port of Calcutta. In September, 1875, he was deputed to Simla to act on a Committee for the improvement of the sanitation of that station, and in the following November was placed in charge of the Northern Circle, Bengal.
In the autumn of 1876 Mr. Smith's services were placed at the disposal of the Government of India for employment as Superintending Engineer of the Simla Imperial Circle, in which capacity he designed and carried out a scheme of water-supply and drainage for the town of Simla. He retained charge of this Circle until its abolition at the end of 1878, when he was re-appointed Superintending Engineer of the Northern Circle.
In the following October he was obliged to retire from the Public Works Department under the operation of a resolution which, consequent on the necessity for curtailing expenditure, ordered a large reduction in establishment, and directed the retirement of civil officers who had attained the age of fifty-five years. He received from the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal a service certificate couched in extremely complimentary terms.
On his retirement from Government service, Mr. Smith was appointed Consulting Engineer to the Rajah of Cooch Behar. Some time after his return to England he accepted the post of Secretary to the "London Sanitary Protection Association," which he held until his death on the 18th of May 1892, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Mr. Smith was an engineer of considerable ability, and his high character and genial disposition made him popular amongst a wide circle of friends.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 15th of May, 1866.