Alan Grant-Dalton (c1851-1918) of the Cape Government Railway
1850 Born the son of son of Dalton Foster Grant-Dalton, J.P., of Shanks House, near Wincanton
Educated at Marlborough College.
1868 Articled to the engineer-in-chief of the Liverpool Docks.
1872 - 1874 he was on the staff of the Madeira and Mamori Railway Company (Brazil). He was engaged in surveying and exploration.
In February 1875 Grant-Dalton went to the Cape Colony and joined the staff of the Cape Government Railways.
1878 Married at Uitenhage, Cape Colony, to Emma Brehm.[1].
1883 Birth of a son at Colesberg, Cape Colony. He is District Engineer of the Cape Government Railway.[2]. This son was presumably Alan Trevanian Grant-Dalton, who became a civil engineer.
In January 1891 he was appointed resident engineer at the Midland and Eastern Junction.
1894 District Engineer at East London.
1898 Appointed resident engineer of the Eastern railway system, and from February the next year resident engineer of the Port Elizabeth to Avontuur railway.
In April 1901, during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), he became chief resident engineer at Port Elizabeth, and in November that year assistant engineer-in-chief.
In July 1904 he was promoted to engineer-in-chief of the Cape Government Railway, succeeding John Brown, and settled in Rondebosch, Cape Town. He still lived there in 1913, but had resigned his position in 1910 when the Union of South Africa was formed.
Much of the above information is condensed from here[3]
1918 Died. 'Death, at Cape Town, of Mr. Alan Grant Dalton, sometime Engineer-in- Chief of the Cape Government Railways. The deceased gentleman joined the Cape Government Railways as construction engineer in 1875; he was resident engineer at East London, 1898; resident engineer, Port Elizabeth-Avontuur narrow-gauge railway construction, 1899; and chief resident engineer in charge of the Grand Junction Railway construction headquarters, Port Elizabeth, 1901. When Mr. McEwen was made assistant general manager in 1901, Mr. Dalton was appointed to the vacant position of assistant engineer-in -chief, and on the death of Mr. John Brown, in 1904, was made Engineer-in-Chief of the Cape Government Railways. He was retired on pension at Union, when Mr. Tippett was appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the South African Railways.'[4]
He was a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He joined the Cape Society of Civil Engineers in 1902 and remained a member after the society became the South African Society of Civil Engineers in 1909, and served on its council again in 1913. In 1901 he joined the South African Philosophical Society and remained a member when it developed into the Royal Society of South Africa in 1908. In 1905 he became a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.