Sir John Purser Griffith (5 October 1848 – 21 October 1938) was a Welsh-born Irish

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and politician.ICE Obituary
/ref> Griffith was educated at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and gained a licence in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

in 1868. He served a two-year apprenticeship under Dr Bindon Blood Stoney, the Engineer in Chief of the Dublin Port and Docks, before working as assistant to the

county surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

. He returned to Dublin in 1871 and worked as Dr. Stoney's assistant, becoming the Chief Engineer in 1898 before retiring in 1913. ICE editathon - One Great George Street - 19 July 2013 34

ICE editathon - One Great George Street - 19 July 2013 34

He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Ireland between 1887 and 1889 and of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

between 1919 and 1920. He was elected Commissioner of Irish Lights in 1913 and was a member of the Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways between 1906 and 1911. Griffith purchased and drained the bogland at

Pollagh Pollagh (), also spelled Pullough, is a village in County Offaly, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, located in the midlands of Ireland. It is a rural village on the Grand Canal (Ireland), Grand Canal and lies between Ferbane and Tullamore. Much of th ...

, part of the

Bog of Allen The Bog of Allen ( ga, Móin Alúine) is a large raised bog in the centre of Ireland between the rivers Liffey and Shannon. The bog's 958 square kilometers (370 square miles) stretch into County Offaly, County Meath, County Kildare, County Lao ...

, a peat fuelled power station was built which drove an excavator, excess peat being taken by the Grand Canal for sale in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

.Lough Boora Parklands
/ref> The site was sold to the

Turf Development Board Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultu ...

in 1936 who used it as a basis for all of their later peat fuelled power stations, the area is now a nature reserve. Griffith received a knighthood in 1911 and became vice-president of the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

in 1922. He served as Honorary Professor of Harbour Engineering in Trinity College, his alma mater, and received an honorary M.A.I. degree from the University of Dublin in 1914. From 1922 he was an elected member of the

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

, the Irish senate, until its abolition in 1936. In the 1930s he and Sarah Purser, endowed the Purser Griffith Travelling Scholarship and the Purser Griffith Prize to the two best performing students in European Art History at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

.University College Dublin prizes
/ref> He died at Rathmines Castle in

on 21 October 1938.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, John Irish civil engineers 1848 births 1938 deaths Irish knights Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the 1925 Seanad Members of the 1928 Seanad Members of the 1931 Seanad Members of the 1934 Seanad Members of the Senate of Southern Ireland Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Holyhead