Richard Frederic Fitz-Edmund Hayes
Richard Frederic Fitz-Edmund Hayes (1855-1895)
1896 Obituary [1]
RICHARD FREDERIC FITZ-EDMUND HAYES, M.A., born at 25, Mountjoy Square, Dublin, on the 10th May, 1855, was the fourth son of the Hon. Mr. Justice Hayes, a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division, Ireland.
He was educated at the Royal School of Dungannon and afterwards at Londonderry, but owing to ill health was obliged to leave and for some considerable time was an invalid.
On his restoration to health, he passed first in an examination of candidates for the Straits Settlements Civil Service. On presenting himself however for physical examination he was disqualified; this was a heavy blow, but he resolved to pursue the Dublin University course, which he had already commenced, and to become a civil engineer. His mathematical abilities were brilliant, and he carried off many prizes as well as a gold medal and the Senior Moderatorship in experimental science and mathematics.
From the engineering school of Trinity College, Dublin, he obtained not only the regular diploma granted by the University, but special certificates in mineralogy, chemistry, geology and mining.
In May, 1881, he was articled to Mr. Shelford, who subsequently entrusted him with the superintendence, under the Resident Engineer, of the construction of part of the Hull and Barnsley Railway.
Mr. Hayes was then employed for two years by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company in preparing contract plans for the Hindley and Pendleton line, and in making drawings for iron and masonry bridges, roofs and station buildings. In 1886 and 1887 he was engaged in Co. Galway in charge of a number of small harbour and bridge works, all of which were executed to the satisfaction of the Board of Public Works.
He then entered the office of Messrs. James Livesey and Son, whom he left, however, for the purpose of constructing a railway in Mexico, and afterwards undertook a contract for the erection of station buildings in the same country. For some time he had been busy in the introduction of a preparation of pine wood into London, which is expected to be useful for many purposes, but in the midst of health and activity he was struck down by diphtheria.
Mr. Hayes died in London on the 18th of December, 1895.
He was elected an Associate Member on the 27th May, 1884.