Richard Shaw Brundell
Richard Shaw Brundell (1829-1903)
Brother of Benjamin Shaw Brundell
1903 Obituary [1]
RICHARD SHAW BRUNDELL, born in 1839, at Gillingham, Norfolk, began his professional career on the engineering staff of the Great Northern Railway.
In 1854 he was appointed an Assistant Engineer on the East Indian Railway, then being constructed from Calcutta to Delhi, under the late George Turnbull. On arriving at Calcutta, Mr. Brundell was posted to the Mirzapore District, and while there had charge of a very difficult length, owing to the large waterways to be crossed, involving heavy masonry bridges, and as the line was near the confluence of the Ganges, the foundations had to be sunk a great depth on brick wells or cylinders. During the Mutiny the works were stopped and the staff were for a time ordered into the fort at Chanar.
In February, 1863, Mr. Brundell accepted the appointment of District Engineer and agent to Messrs. Waring Brothers and Hunt, who had obtained the contract for the constrnction of the Jabalpur branch of the East Indian Railway, from Allahabad to Jabalpur, a distance of 222 miles. Mr. Brundell took charge of the Jabalpur District, and jointly with Mr. John M. Easton completed the contract in 1868.
In August of that year he started in business in Jabalpur as a contractor with Mr. Easton, the firm being known as Brundell and Easton. They obtained from the East Indian Railway Company the two years' maintenance contract of the New Allahabad to Jabalpur line, and the completion of the extensions and additions at stations.
In 1870-71 they were engaged on a similar contract for the Great Indian Peninsular Railway for the first 120 miles, from Jabalpur towards Bombay.
They had also a large contract for the supply of teak sleepers from the forests of Rewah.
In 1870 Mr. Brundell returned home on leave, and in 1871, on the completion of the firm's contracts, retired from business in India, and for fourteen years farmed the Doncaster Sewage Farm, which had been laid out by his brother, the late Mr. B. S. Brundell.
He died in Doncaster on the 9th May, 1903.
Mr. Brundell was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 1st December, 1868, and was subsequently placed in the class of Associate Members.