Clement Daniel Maggs Hindley
Sir Clement Daniel Maggs Hindley (1874-1944)
1944 Obituary [1]
Sir CLEMENT DANIEL MAGGS HINDLEY, K.C.I.E., was born on the 19th December, 1874, and died at Hampton Court, Middlesex, on the 3rd May, 1944.
He was educated at Dulwich College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the degree of B.A. in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos and was later awarded the degree of M.A.
In January 1897, he was appointed as an assistant engineer on the East Indian Railway and received his practical training under Messrs. F. E. Robertson and E. H. Stone, MM. Inst. C.E., the Chief Engineers to that railway.
In 1899 he was engaged on the survey of the Grand Chord line of the railway and on the location of 52 miles of line in the Plateau section. In 1900 he was transferred to maintenance work on various divisions of the railway.
In 1904 he participated in the official visit of The Institution to America and Canada, and after returning to India in 1905 he was placed in charge of the Allahabad district, where he was directly responsible to the Chief Engineer for the maintenance of about 450 miles of main line, together with stations, buildings, and signalling. In the same year he was appointed Personal Assistant to the Chief Engineer, and in 1906 was placed in charge of the technical section of the office of the Agent for the East Indian Railway, with responsibility for the scrutiny of all plans and estimates for engineering works. Later he assumed charge of the Delhi district and the completion of the works for the Agra direct access project.
In 1909 he was appointed Resident Engineer of the works for the completion of the Gya-Khatrasgarh Railway. He became Secretary of the East Indian Railway in 1914, Deputy General Manager in 1918, and General Manager in 1920.
In 1921 he was appointed Chairman of the Commissioners of the Port of Calcutta, and in the following year was selected as the first Chief Commissioner of Railways for India, with responsibility for decisions on technical matters, and was the sole adviser to the Government of India on railway policy. During his tenure of this office many important changes were introduced, including reorganization of the Railway Department, the separation of railway finance from the general budget, the transfer of the East Indian and Great Indian Peninsula Railways to State management, and the opening of the first Railway Staff College.
His work also included the restoration of the Indian railways to a state of efficiency after the effects of the war of 1914-1918 and the initiation of a programme of new construction which added 4,000 miles to the railways....[more]