Edward Vinicombe Davy
Edward Vinicombe Davy (1883-1915)
1915 Obituary [1]
EDWARD VINICOMBE DAVY, one of the Penzance family to which Sir Humphry Davy belonged, was born in London on 11th December 1883, and was educated at Seaford College, Sussex.
In 1901, at the age of seventeen, he began an apprenticeship with Messrs. Glenfield and Kennedy, Ltd., of Kilmarnock, and on its completion in 1904 he studied for two years at the City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury, where he obtained the Mechanical Engineering Diploma.
He then became assistant to Professor Coker at the Finsbury College for one year, and was next engaged on survey and general civil engineering work in the office of Mr. H. H. Hellins, M.Inst.C.E., of Exeter.
In August 1908 he went to South America as outside assistant to the divisional water engineer on the Cuyo Division of the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway. For sonic time he was in charge of the water service installation for Puente del Inca Station on the Argentine-Transandine Railway, but owing to the high altitude (about 8,900 feet above sea level) he suffered considerably from mountain sickness, and was transferred to a lower section.
He was appointed chief draughtsman with the survey party on the Rivadavia Branch of the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway, near Mendoza, and remained there until the construction of the line was finished.
Early in 1910 he was appointed assistant to the survey engineer in the San Juan Province, where several branch lines were in project. He remained in San Juan till construction work was started, and subsequently, as assistant to the constructing engineer, was in charge of all outside work on the Marquesado Branch, Santa Lucia Circuit, and the Caucete-Albardon Branch, all in the Province of San Juan. These lines are in the irrigated zone of the Cuyo Division, involving numerous culverts and bridges.
At the time of his death, which occurred suddenly at Panqueua, near Mendoza, on 30th June 1915, in his thirty-second year, he was in charge of the remeasurement of the line.
He was elected a Graduate of this Institution in 1907, and an Associate Member in 1912.