John Richard Manby (1813-1869)
1870 Obituary [1]
John Richard Manby, the second son of the late Aaron Manby (M. Inst. C.E.), was born at Wolverhampton, on the 10th of October, 1813.
He received his education at the Pensionnat Massin, Paris, and was at an early age placed in the gas-works of Manby, Wilson and Co, in that city, where he gained a good knowledge of that branch of the profession, and simultaneously studied general construction, chemistry, mining, &c.
He was then for several years engaged in the construction of the Cette and Montpellier railway, and in the erection of iron-works in the south of France.
He returned to England about the year 1839, and practised his profession in South Wales, where he was engaged in laying out large general works in the coal district, and he subsequently spent a short time in London.
He then became the Resident Engineer of some iron-works in Spain, and afterwards joined his younger brother Edward in business at Madrid. Thence he removed to Paris, and was engaged in the working of lead-mines at St. Martin la Sauvete.
He subsequently accepted an offer to manage the mercantile affairs in Italy of a London firm, and settled first at Genoa and then at Turin, where he materially benefited by the change of climate. In spite, however, of every care, the symptoms of pulmonary disease, from which he had previously suffered, again appeared, and after lingering for a considerable period, he died suddenly at Turin from the rupture of a blood-vessel, on the 19th of March, 1854.
He was of a kind, genial temperament, and possessed the enviable secret of rendering himself a favourite wherever he went. He was followed to the grave by kind-hearted French and Italian friends, who had, during his illness, vied with each other in generous attention to him, and who mourned for him as for a relative. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers as a Graduate in the year 1840, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 2nd of May, 1854.