John McVeagh
John McVeagh ( -1861)
Died 1861
1862 Obituary [1]
MR. JOHN McVEAGH commenced his professional career as a Civil Engineer under Sir John Macneill (M. Inst., C.E.), on a line of railway, between Drogheda and Belfast.
He then superintended the construction of various Roads, Bridges, and Lime Works in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and was afterwards employed under Mr. Thompson, C.E., of Glasgow in the construction of a bridge over the river Kelvin near Glasgow, in taking soundings and preparing a chart from Port Glasgow to Gourock Bay below Greenock Bank; and in making surveys and taking levels for a proposed canal from Loch Lomond to form a junction with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Bowling Bay.
He was then engaged under the late Mr. Errington (M. Inst., C.E.), in the construction of the Greenock and Glasgow Railway, in the preparation of the drawings, for a Landing Stage for deep-water vessels at Greenock, and in the construction of the Docks at that port.
He also designed, under the direction of Mr. Errington, plans for a breakwater to be placed on Greenock Bank. Subsequently, he was engaged under Messrs. Locke and Errington in preparing the plans and sections, and carrying the bills through Parliament, of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, the Caledonian Railway, etc., from which period, until the time of his death, which took place at Southfield, Liberton, near Edinburgh, on the 17th of August, 1861, he was unremittingly employed professionally in France, Holland, and Spain, as well as in various parts of the United Kingdom.
He was also employed for some time in preparing drawings for the extension of the dock accommodation at Sutton Pool, near Plymouth - a work which, from want of sufficient funds, was not fully executed. Upon the portion which was carried out, the resident Engineer was the present Sir Charles Hartley ( M. Inst. C.E.), the Engineer of the works now being executed, under the joint commission appointed after the Crimean war, at the Sulina mouth of the Danube.
Mr. McVeagh was constantly occupied during a long and active professional life ; and it is a source of regret that all attempts to obtain materials for a proper memoir 2hould have proved abortive.
He only joined the Institution as a Member in the year 1858, during the Presidency of the late Mr. Locke, M.P., by whom he was much esteemed.