John Cundy
John Cundy (1828-1892)
1892 Obituary [1]
JOHN CUNDY was born on the 3rd of June, 1828. After serving a regular pupilage, partly under the late Sir Joseph Bazalgette and partly under H. T. Wright, he became in 1849 a draughtsman in the Wagon Construction Department at Camden of the London and Birmingham Railway, now part of the London and North Western Company’s system.
In 1853 the shops at Camden were removed to make way for the North London Extensions and for the Company’s coal depot, and Mr. Cundy went with the other officials to the Saltley Works, Birmingham.
There he remained until 1855, when his services and those of several members of the staff at Saltley were dispensed with, consequent on the amalgamation of the various lines under the title of the London and North Western Railway.
He was next for two years Manager of Hanson’s Patent Wagon Co, and in 1860 went to Spain as an Assistant Engineer, under Thomas Rumball, on the Santiago Railway.
He was then appointed to the staff of the late Captain Fowke, R.E., engaged on the works of the International Exhibition of 1862, and in the following year became Deputy Superintendent of the machinery department, under D. K. Clark.
In the same year he went to Roumania for Mr. Rumball, to take charge of a section of the railway from Bucharest to Georgivi, and during the two following years acted as Inspecting Engineer in England for the Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Company. In that capacity he inspected some wagons made by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co, and thus became favourably known to Mr. Slater, the General Manager of that Company.
In 1867 the Company obtained large contracts for wagon and carriage stock in Russia, upon which Mr. Slater secured his services as Engineering Agent in that Empire.
Mr. Cundy went to Russia in 1868 and erected shops at Riga, where for the next five years he superintended a staff of four hundred men engaged in putting together the stock shipped from England. On the completion of this work in 1873 he returned home, and was placed in charge of the Company’s coal wagon dep6t at Cardiff.
Shortly afterwards the Gloucester Wagon Company took over the business of Eassie and Co, and, with a view to developing a fancy-wood type of building, formed what was called the joinery or architectural department, of which Mr. Cundy was brought from Cardiff to take charge. He was thus engaged from 1875 until 1880, when, in consequence of some disagreement with the manager, he left the Company’s service.
Of the last ten or twelve years of his life but little is known. On leaving Gloucester, he was for a time Land Steward or Bailiff on some large estates in Norfolk, and was latterly allowed to act in London on commission as an agent for his old employers, the Gloucester Wagon Company, but his career as an Engineer practically ceased on his leaving the service of that Company.
Mr. Cundy died on the 25th of January, 1892. He was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 1st of May, 1866, and was transferred to the class of Associate Member on its creation in December, 1878.