Ludovic Stewart Rudolph Ewing
Ludovic Stewart Rudolph Ewing (1856-1886)
1887 Obituary [1]
LUDOVIC STEWART RUDOLPH EWING, the younger son of the late Alexander Ewing, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, was born on the 13th of February, 1856, at Bishopston, in Argyllshire.
He was educated mainly at Glenalmond, in Perthshire, where he was at school from September, 1865, till midsummer, 1873.
On leaving school he studied at Glasgow, and in April, 1875, began a course of instruction at the Crystal Palace Company’s Engineering School under [[J. W. Wilson|Mr. J. W. Wilson, M. Inst. C.E., where he remained until December, 18iG. afterwards, he was employed in New Zealand from -4ugust, 1877, until March, 1881. At first he was an assistant in the Public Works Department under Mr. John Carruthers and Mr. W. N. Blair, MM.Inst.C.E.; subsequently he was engaged for about three years in the General Survey Department, during which time he triangulated about 1,000,000 acres for the Government, and laid off about 35,000 acres in rural sections for settlement, including the necessary topography, roads, traverses, &C., under Messrs. Maitland and King.
Early in the year 1882, after six months’ holiday in England, he went to India to take up the position of Assistant Engineer on the Bengal Central Railway, then in course of construction. The hard work and daily exposure to the Indian sun, however, soon brought on an attack of fever and ague, and he was laid up in Calcutta for some time. When he recovered, it was thought advisable that he should seek a better climate, and through the friendship of Mr. Izat, Agent of the Bengal and North-Western Railway, he was employed on the extension of that line from Goruckpore to Bahreich, in Oude.
In the month of December 1884, while out hunting in company with Colonel Currie, Deputy Commissioner of Bahreich, and three friends, he was accidentally shot. The hunt was at once stopped, and he was carried into a neighbouring bungalow, a doctor being hurriedly sent for. He lost consciousness for some time, but eventually recovered, and although completely paralyzed, was able to be moved slowly towards Bahreich. Everything was done for him both at the time of the accident and afterwards by Drs. Corbett and Robertson; more especially was he indebted to the wife of the Deputy-Commissioner for her care and unremitting attention to him. He remained at Bahreich for nine months before it was possible to remove him to England, but in October he was brought home in order that he might have the best advice. The paralysis, however, would not give way to treatment, and in January 1886 a return of Indian fever completely prostrated him, leaving him so weak that on the 17th of March, 1886, he succumbed to an attack of pneumonia.
Ludovic Ewing was a most promising young engineer, very highly thought of by his professional associates in the work on which they were engaged. A red granite cross marks his last resting-place in the rural churchyard of Westmill, in the county of Hertford, with the appropriate words under his name :- “Patient in tribulation.”
He was elected an Associate Member on the 7th of February, 1582.