Joseph Hindle (1838-1892)
JOSEPH HINDLE, third son of the late Rev. Joseph Hindle, B.D., Vicar of Higham near Rochester, was born at Gravesend on the 5th of April, 1838, and was educated first at a preparatory school at Ramsgate and then at Oakham Grammar School under the Rev. W. S. Wood, D.D., the present vicar of Higham.
In March 1856, he was articled for three years to George Rennie and Sons and in June, 1859, became a pupil of W. M. Brydone, then Chief Engineer of the Great Northern Railway, by whom he was subsequently employed on the Garston and Liverpool Railway.
In the autumn of 1861 Mr. Hindle obtained an appointment as an Engineer in the service of the Peruvian Government.
For six years, during which time he passed from the Third to the First Class, he was chiefly occupied in making surveys, plans and estimates, and in preparing reports, and carried out little actual constructive work, with the exception of the conversion of the corvette "Loa" into an ironclad and her subsequent recovery after she hac1 been run aground in the harbour of Callas. In 186Ci he was granted permission to practise privately, his services, however, still being retained by the Government.
In February of the same year he was appointed a Resident Engineer on the Lima Railways under the late Mr. Oswald Younghusband.
In 1868 and 1869 he made preliminary surreys for the Pacasmayo Cajamarca Railway across the Andes, about 100 miles in length, and for the line from Chimbote to Huaraz and Recuay, cutting through the Cordillera Negra, a range about 16,000 feet high. The length of the latter survey was about 130 miles of most difficult country, the height of Recuay above the sea being over 11,000 feet.
He also made the final survey of the first section (40 miles) of the Oroya Railway, on the construction of which he subsequently acted as District Engineer. In August, 1871, he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Eten, Chiclayo and Ferenafe Railway, a line of about 30 miles. The principal works were three bridges over rivers subject to heavy floods, and a screw-pile pier at Eten, 2,600 feet long, through a heavy surf.
In December of the following year he was placed by the Government in charge, as Engineer and Manager, of the Ylo and Moquegua Railway, 67 miles in length. The line was sold to a private company in 1877, when Mr. Hindle retired from the Government service and left Peru for England in order that his children might be educated in this country.
From that time Mr. Hindle seems to have carried out very little professional work until October, 1890, when he was sent by Messrs. James Livesey and Son to Yucatan, Mexico, to examine and report upon the existing railways of that empire and also to make an investigation and to prepare estimates fort he construction of additional lines, to gather statistics as to probable traffic, and, in fact, to obtain such information as would enable that firm to report as to the advisability of purchasing the lines already in existence and of executing new works.
He returned in the following April, having fulfilled this mission in a most complete and satisfactory manner, and was then employed by Messrs. Grace Brothers & Co., contractors, on the Central Railway of Peru. His health, however, compelled him to return to England in the autumn of 1891, and he died in London on the 18th of August, 1892, at the comparatively early age of fifty-four.
As an Engineer, Mr. Hindle was able and enthusiastic, and might always be depended upon to carry out thoroughly and satisfactorily whatever work was entrusted to him. As a man he was genial and kind-hearted, and deservedly popular among all who came into contact with him.
He was elected a Member of the Institution on the 2nd of December, 1879.