John Thornhill Harrison
John Thornhill Harrison (1815-1891)
1892 Obituary [1]
. . . . On the expiration of his pupilage, in 1838, Mr. Harrison was engaged under the late Mr. I. K. Brunel on the construction of the Great Western and South Devon Railways. He acted first for three and a half years as Assistant Engineer on the Bristol and Gloucester line, and on the Cheltenham and Great Western Union, and then for two years and a half as Resident Engineer on the South Devon line to Dawlish and Plymouth, where he laid down part of the atmospheric railway, since abandoned.
In 1851 he retired temporarily from the profession, and devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, farming a holding of about 500 acres, near Stroud, in Gloucestershire. He became a member of the Council of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and wrote a number of articles on various subjects of interest to the agricultural world, which appeared from time to time in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society.
In 1865 the attention of the Home Office, which was then entrusted with the administration of all matters affecting sanitation, was drawn to the increasing pollution of rivers and streams by the discharge into them of the refuse of towns and manufactories. . . . [more]