Edward Francis Murray
Edward Francis Murray (1818-1882)
1883 Obituary [1]
EDWARD FRANCIS MURRAY, born in Belfast in May 1818, was the second son of Sir James Murray, M.D. He received his early education at the Royal Academical Institute, Belfast, and in 1834 proceeded to France and Italy, where he pursued the study of architecture and drawing till the year 1836.
On his return to England he became the pupil of Mr. Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, Civil Engineer, and was engaged with him in many surveying and engineering works in the north of Ireland, and in England on the Midland Counties Railway.
At the expiration of his pupilage with Mr. Woodhouse, he was introduced to the late Mr. I. K. Brunel, V.P., and was appointed one of his assistant engineers, being engaged for three years at the Box Tunnel, till 1842, when he went with Mr. Brunel to North Italy to lay out a line of railway through the Apennines between Genoa and Alessandria. This resulted in a survey being made for a railway to Turin and Milan. The line was ultimately carried out by the Sardinian Government, and in 1845 and 1846 Mr. Murray was engaged as an assistant engineer at the commencement of the works at the Giovi Tunnel and Genoa end of the railway.
He was afterwards, for a period of thirteen years, Assistant Engineer on the West Cornwall Railway, and Resident Engineer on the Windsor, Wycombe, Henley, and Uxbridge Branch Railways, and on the Brentford Railway and Dock.
After the death of Mr. Brunel in 1859, he was appointed Engineer-in-chief of the Wycombe and the Brentford Railway Companies.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 3rd of April, 1860. He constructed the road bridges across the Thames at Pangbourne, Walton, and Hampton Court, and continued in the exercise of his profession till 1864, when he retired into private life. He took up his residence in Ireland on his father's death in 1871.
His own death, was caused by a fall from his horse at Bray, Co. Wicklow, on the 27th of September, 1882.