Gordon Bigsby
Gordon Bigsby (c1832-1874) R.E.
Died 1874.
A Member of the Society of Engineers.
Lieutenant Gordon Bigsby was a very promising young engineer officer, who had already seen foreign service, and was on his way abroad for further duty when death overtook him.[1]
1875 Obituary [2]
LIEUTENANT GORDON BIGSBY, R.E., the second surviving son of the Rev. Charles Bigsby, M.A., Rector of Bidborough, Kent, was educated at Marlborough College under Dr. Cotton, and received his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1858.
After spending four and a half years on Government works at home, he in 1864 proceeded to India, and was appointed Assistant to the Superintendent of the Kurrachee Harbour Works. While serving in this capacity, he computed “Tide Tables of the Port of Kurrachee for the year 1865,” for which he received the thanks of the Bombay Government.
On leaving Kurrachee, he was nominated for special duty to report on the Anglo-Indian Telegraph in Arabia, Persia, and Beloochistan.
In April 1866 he became Executive Engineer of Chanda, in the Central Provinces, and was complimented on the works by the local Government. In India, where clerks of works do not exist, every plan design, and estimate have to be prepared by the Engineer, or under his close supervision.
In this department Lieutenant Bigsby won great credit, and was always reported on as “an officer of the highest ability and efficiency.” After a short service as Executive Engineer in the Bengal P. W. D., Lieutenant, or rather Captain, Bigsby (he took the latter rank in India) in 1869 took charge of the works in the territories of the Maharajah of Bhurtpore.
In 1873, having lost his health, he returned to England; but, unhappily, the disease engendered by residence in a tropical climate had taken too firm hold to be got rid of, and he died at sea on a voyage to Canada, at the early age of thirty-five.
Lieutenant Bigsby was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 3rd of December, 1867, and always expressed regret that residence abroad prevented his taking an active share in its proceedings.