Francis Baker Hanna
Francis Baker Hanna (1841-1891)
1892 Obituary [1]
. . . . In November 1862 he was articled to the late G. W. Hemans, and was engaged, under Thomas Dyke, from September 1863 to September 1865, on the East Grinstead and Groombridge Railway, and subsequently on parliamentary and contract surveys.
On the 20th of November, 1866, Mr. Hanna entered the service of the Madras Railway Company as a Fourth-Class Assistant Engineer, and was employed on the survey of the north-west line until March 1868, when he was posted to district 19 of the same line then under construction.
In November of that year he was promoted to Third-Class Assistant Engineer, and in April 1869, was appointed Personal Assistant to the Chief Engineer, Beresford Anderson, a position which he held for several years with much credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his chief. His duties were of a very important and responsible nature.
He had charge of the Drawing, Accountant’s, and Correspondence Departments, and was entrusted with the preparation of all plans and estimates issuing from the office of the Engineer-in-Chief. He had also charge of the large and important terminal workshops, from which all stores, materials, and plant were forwarded upcountry, and, in addition, supervised for a time the Salt Cotam Branch and the Perambur Locomotive Workshop Buildings.
He was promoted to Second-Class Assistant Engineer in April 1871, and to First-class Assistant Engineer in July 1874.
In June 1875 Mr. Hanna was placed in charge of the Western (Beypore) division of the open line, a post which he held for two years, after which he went to England on eighteen months’ furlough.
On returning to India in December 1878, he took charge of the Third Division of the line, and was subsequently removed to Bellary. He was next appointed, in September 1884, to carry out the survey of the extension from Beypore to Calicut, and then acted as Resident Engineer on the construction of the work. . . . [more]