John Matthew Blackwood Stuart
John Matthew Blackwood Stuart (1882-1942)
1942 Obituary [1]
1942 Obituary [2]
JOHN MATTHEW BLACKWOOD STUART, C.I.E., was born at Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland, on the 14th March 1882, and died at Haywards Heath, Sussex, on the 31st October 1942.
He was educated at Portora Royal Sbhool and at Trinity College, Dublin, and pursued his engineering studies at Dublin University. After service in the South African war as a private in the Northern Irish Imperial Yeomanry, he commenced his practical training in 1901 with Messrs. Joyce & Co., of Dublin, and continued it with Messrs. H. and J. Martin, Ltd.
In 1905 he received an appointment with the Indian Service of Engineers and was posted to the Burma Irrigation Department as an assistant engineer.
In 1914 he was appointed an executive engineer.
From 1914 to 1919 he was on active service with the Queen Victoria’s Own Sappers and Miners and attained the rank of major.
In 1920 he became Under Secretary to the Government of Burma and assistant to the Chief Engineer.
In 1923 he was appointed Superintending Engineer in the Irrigation Branch, and in 1930 Chief Engineer, Public Works Department, Irrigation Branch, which position he retained until his retirement in 1935.
He then started in practice as a consultant in the firm of Messrs. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton, for whom he went out to Palestine in 1935 and to the Persian Gulf in 1938, upon projects of land reclamation and of oil-port construction respectively.
The last two years were spent in the urgent Government work of munition factory construction, in which he was still engaged up to the last.
His services in Burma, where his life’s work lay, had been recognized by the award of the C.I.E. in 1934....[more]