Robert Handcock
Robert Handcock ( -1885)
1886 Obituary [1]
ROBERT HANDCOCK was a son of the Rev. Robert Handcock, a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, and cousin of Lord Castlemaine.
He served his pupilage to Mr. W. R. Le Fanu, M. Inst. C.E., and was subsequently engaged as Resident Engineer for that gentleman on the Killarney Junction Railway, now part of the Great Southern and Western system. The long tunnel at Cork, forming part of this undertaking, was also under Mr. Handcock’s supervision as Resident Engineer.
In 1853 Mr. Handcock was appointed an Assistant-Engineer on the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway, and was in due time promoted to the charge of a district on that line.
In 1858 he left India for New South Wales, in which colony he spent the remainder of his life, Being of independent fortune he was free to regard his profession as a pleasant occupation rather than as a means of existence; but he did good work in the Australian Colonies in the direction of water-supply, the study of hydraulics having for him, in common with many of the most highly-gifted engineers, a peculiar fascination.
Mr. Handcock was engaged on the survey for the Sydney water-supply in 1868, and in August of the following year was appointed a Licensed Surveyor of New South Wales, and employed under Mr. C. F. Adams, Surveyor-General, until April, 1876.
At the latter date he was removed to the Staff and served in that capacity until his death, on the 13th of February, 1885. His excellent survey of Port Hacking first brought him under the notice of the Surveyor-General, and the plan he made to accompany Mr. W. Clark‘s report on the Sydney water-supply is still a standard one in the department.
Mr. Handcock was elected a Member of this Institution on the 1st of March, 1876.