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| John William James (1820-1908) | | #redirect [[John William James (1820-1908)]] |
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| ----
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| '''1908 Obituary <ref> [[1908 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries]] </ref>
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| JOHN WILLIAM JAMES was born on the 18th November, 1820,
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| at Buncraggy, County Clare, and was thus in his eighty-eighth year
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| when, after a long and varied engineering career pursued in four
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| continents, he died in New South Wales on the 10th January, 1908.
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| He was educated at Ennis College, and after serving a pupilage of
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| 5 years to [[William Stokes|Mr. William Stokes]], Civil Engineer, of Banagher, King's
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| County, he was given employment by the late [[John Macneill|Sir John Macneill]] on
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| railway work in the north of Ireland, subsequently coming to
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| England, where he was similarly occupied in the southern and
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| western counties for several years.
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| In 1849 he went to the United
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| States, where he obtained employment as a land surveyor, and
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| subsequently became assistant engineer on the New York and Erie Railway.
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| At the end of 1851 he crossed into Canada, to take part
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| in the survey and construction of the Buffalo, Brantford and
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| Goderich Railway, of which he eventually became Chief Engineer,
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| and when this line was merged in the Buffalo and Lake Huron
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| undertaking, Captain R. Barlow being appointed Chief Engineer,
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| Mr. James as Chief Assistant constructed the remaining half of the
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| railway, and succeeded Captain Barlow as Engineer of the completed
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| line in 1858.
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| In the following year, Mr. James returned to England and
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| received from [[Alexander Meadows Rendel|Sir Alexander M. Rendel]] the appointment of District
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| Engineer on the Jubbulpore Division of the [[East Indian Railway]].
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| He held this position for 9 years, until the works upon which he
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| was engaged were completed.
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| He then returned to Canada and
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| spent some years in consulting practice.
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| In 1876 he went out from England to South Australia, where he
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| at once secured an appointment in the Government service, in which
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| he remained, with one short interval, until his retirement in
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| November, 1890. During this period of 14 years, he was engaged
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| continuously on railway survey and construction work in various
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| parts of the State, and especially on exploratory surveys in the
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| Northern Territory. He also examined the course of the River
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| Murray as far as the New South Wales boundary, and in his report
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| recommended training and other works for the improvement of
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| navigation, which were subsequently carried out and successfully
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| accomplished their object.
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| His last work was the construction of
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| the railway and jetty at Port Darwin in the Northern Territory.
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| On the completion of this work, he entered upon a well-earned rest,
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| taking with him into retirement the esteem and regard of all who
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| knew him as a loyal and genial friend, an able colleague, and a
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| conscientious and considerate employer.
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| Mr. James was elected a Member of The Institution on the 1st
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| December, 1868.
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| ----
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| == See Also ==
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| <what-links-here/>
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| == Sources of Information ==
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| <references/>
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| {{DEFAULTSORT: James}}
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| [[Category: Biography]]
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| [[Category: Biography - India]]
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| [[Category: Biography - Railways]]
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| [[Category: Births 1820-1829]]
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| [[Category: Deaths 1900-1909]]
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| [[Category: Institution of Civil Engineers]]
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