George Willoughby Hemans (27 August 1814 – 29 December 1885) was an Irish architect and engineer who designed several major railway schemes in Ireland and the UK during the mid 19th century. He was born in

St Asaph St Asaph (; cy, Llanelwy "church on the Elwy") is a city and community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 3,355, making it the second-smallest city in Britain in terms of population and urban ...

, North Wales, on 27 August 1814.Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 – 1940
/ref> Hemans studied for three years at a French military college (the ) in

Sorèze Sorèze (; oc, Sorese ca, Sorese) is a commune in the Tarn department in southern France. See also * Communes of the Tarn department The following is a list of the 314 communes of the Tarn department of France. The communes cooperate i ...

, showing academic abilities in languages, science and drawing. He spent his early career with the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

as a pupil of London-based engineer Sir John Macneill, who later appointed him as resident engineer for the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

end of the railway to Drogheda, where he supervised the first iron

lattice bridge A lattice bridge is a form of truss bridge that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a lattice. The lattice Truss Bridge was patented in 1820 by architect Ithiel Town. Originally a design to allow a substantial bridge to be ma ...

s in Ireland. In 1845, after his next commission, to take charge of a railway line between Dublin and Cork, he was appointed chief engineer by the directors of the

Midland Great Western Railway The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) was the third largest Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railways in 1924. At its peak the MGWR had a network of , making it Irelan ...

of Ireland to prepare plans for a line to

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeath ...

and Longford. In 1854, Hemans moved to London, where his railway engineering works included the

Vale of Clwyd The Vale of Clwyd ( cy, Dyffryn Clwyd) is a tract of low-lying ground in the county of Denbighshire in north-east Wales. The Vale extends south-southwestwards from the coast of the Irish Sea for some 20 miles (about 30 km) forming a triangl ...

, the East Grinstead and Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells, and the Tewkesbury and Malvern lines. He became a member 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 ...

in 1837 becoming a member of its council in 1856, and later vice-president. He was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland from 1845, serving as council member 1846–1849, 1860–61, 1885; vice-president 1850–1856; president 1857–1859; and honorary member from 1 December 1881. He was a member of the Royal Institute of Architects 1840–1852 and the Royal Zoological Society, acting as council member 1850–1853.Jones transcripts from Thom's directories, sub Royal Irish Academy, sub Royal Zoological Society Hemans moved to New Zealand in 1870, where he was appointed engineer-in-chief for

Canterbury Province The Canterbury Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. Its capital was Christchurch. History Canterbury was founded in December 1850 by the Canterbury Association of influential En ...

, and later for all New Zealand.

Family

Hemans was the eldest son of Irish army officer Captain Alfred Hemans and poet

Felicia Hemans Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...

(née Browne), who married in 1812.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemans, George Willoughby 1814 births 1885 deaths People from St Asaph Irish engineers New Zealand engineers