Arthur Shanks
Arthur Shanks (1836-1903)
1904 Obituary [1]
ARTHUR SHANKS, born on the 22nd February, 1836, began his engineering career as an apprentice in the works of Robert Stephenson and Co, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, with which firm he subsequently remained as an Assistant until 1861.
Early in the following year he went to Calcutta, where he was engaged for some months in the Engineer’s office of the River Steamer Company, and in November of that year he entered the service of the Eastern Bengal Railway Company as Assistant to the Locomotive Superintendent.
In May, 1864, he was appointed Resident Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent of the Calcutta and South Eastern Railway, which post he held until June, 1868, when he resigned in order to become a member of the firm of Messrs. Burn and Company, of Calcutta and Howrah.
During the twenty-two years of his connection with Messrs. Burn and Company, Mr. Shanks was principally engaged in managing the Howrah Ironworks of that firm, in which capacity he was responsible for the construction of bridgework, roofing, lock-gates, engines, boilers, rolling-stock, and foundry work of all kinds.
Retiring in 1890, he returned to England, where he died, at Heath Place, Cowden, Kent, on the 17th August, 1903, in his sixty-eighth year.
Mr. Shanks was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 14th May, 1872, was subsequently placed among the Associate Members, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 11th March, 1884.