Charles Tarrant (1815-1877)
1837 August. Marriage of Charles Tarrant, Junior, Civil Engineer, Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, to Jane the daughter of the late Robert Hodgson of this town (Belfast).[1]
1878 Obituary [2]
MR. CHARLES TARRART, the son of Mr. Charles Tarrant, Engineer to the Grand Canal Company, was born in Dublin in 1815.
He was educated by a connection named Crawford, who resided in the neighbourhood of Dublin, and was apprenticed to his father, being engaged on the Grand Canal and on private works. He became Assistant Engineer to the Grand Canal Company under his father, and afterwards went to Scotland in connection with Mr. Henry, who was employed in the construction of the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway.
He returned to Ireland on the completion of that work, and became Assistant Engineer to the Waterford and Kilkenny railway, under the late Captain Moorsom, M. Inst. C.E. On the completion of that line, he accepted an engagement on the Susquehanna and Reading railway, in America, where he, during some years, pushed on the works vigorously, employing vast numbers of both German and Irish navvies; but the climate did not agree with his family, and he abandoned the work and returned to Ireland.
Having passed a competitive examination for the office of County Surveyor, he was appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to Monaghan, and soon after exchanged to Waterford, which he held to the time of his death. He was largely employed in the district in architectural as well as in drainage works; the amalgamated prison of the county and city of Waterford being one of his principal public buildings.
In conjunction with Mr. Wellington Purdon, M. Inst. C.E., he was appointed Engineer to the Waterford, Dungarvan, and Lismore railway, now approaching completion, under the Companies Acts of 1872 and 1873. He died suddenly on Tuesday, the 31st of July, 1877, from heart disease of long standing. He was a thoroughly upright, single-minded man, and his county works, roads, &c., are admittedly amongst the best in Ireland.
A few months before his death, he was appointed, by the Lord Lieutenant, joint Commissioner, with Nr. W. Forsyth, of the Board of Works, and the County Surveyor of Cork, to report on Youghal bridge, connecting the counties of Cork and Waterford ; and plans prepared by him for the erection of a permanent stone and iron structure, to replace the present decayed wooden bridge, were unanimously approved by the grand juries of Cork and Waterford.
Mr. Tarrant was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 5th of December, 1865.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Belfast News-Letter - Friday 01 September 1837
- ↑ 1878 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries