Samuel Forbes Downing
Samuel Forbes Downing (1844-1891)
1892 Obituary [1]
. . . . In 1869 Mr. Downing was appointed by the Secretary of State for India to the Fourth Class of the Bengal Education Department as Professor of Civil Engineering in the Engineering Branch of the Presidency College, Calcutta.
He was promoted in 1876 to the Third Grade, and subsequently to the Second Grade of the Education Department.
In 1880 the Engineering Department of the Presidency College was transferred to Seebpore, near Howrah, and the Dehree Training School was incorporated with it as a Mechanical Apprentice Department; the whole under the title of Government Engineering College, Howrah, which was shortly afterwards altered to Civil Engineering College, Seebpore.
Mr. Downing was chosen as the first Principal of the new college (the first purely residential Government college in Bengal), and at once made it apparent that his system would be nothing if not 'thorough.' . . . [more]