Anthony Grant Hobson (1861-1887)
1888 Obituary [1]
ANTHONY GRANT HOBSON was the eldest son of the late Captain A. P. Hobson. He was born in the West Indies on the 16th of October, 1861, and was educated at Christ's Hospital, which he left at the age of fifteen.
He immediately proceeded to Portugal, where he was employed for a year on the Minho District Railway under [John Dixon|Mr. John Dixon]].
He was then articled for three years to the late Mr. W. F. Batho, M.Inst.C.E.
After the termination of his pupilage in July 1881, he was for some months engaged in Lancashire to inspect he construction of locomotives for the Barbados Railway Company.
When these were completed he entered the office of the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, at Inchicore.
In 1883, Mr. Hobson obtained an appointment in the service of Jerez-Algeciras Railway Company, and left for Spain. He was engaged upon the surveys of that line until the suspension of the work in July 1884.
Three months afterwards he was appointed to the construction department of the Rio Tinto Company, when he had charge of railway and dam-work; as also the setting out and construction of work for the extraction of copper from poor ore by the wet method, constructing several sets of precipitation-tanks for that purpose. He would no doubt have remained there and made his mark, for he had excellent natural abilities; but the climate did not suit him, and after struggling ineffectually against constant fever, he was obliged to resign his appointment.
Returning to England, he apparently quite recovered his health, and very soon was engaged by Mr. J. Whittall, to go to China on the construction of the Taku-Tientsin Railway. He started in July 1887, full of hope and confidence, but when in the tropics, a return of the fever supervened, and he died at Singapore on the 16th of the same month.
Mr. Hobson was only elected an Associate Member on the 1st of March in the year in which he died. He had previously been a Student.