Thomas Martin
Thomas Martin (1831-1883)
1884 Obituary [1]
THOMAS MARTIN was the second son of the late Aylmer R. Martin, a solicitor practising in Cork and Dublin, and was born on the 13th of June, 1831, at Mayfield, Co. Cork.
He was educated at Bandon school, and from thence entered Trinity College, Dublin, on the 14th of September, 1848, where during his under-graduate course he distinguished himself at each honour examination in science, always obtaining honours in mathematics, and came out from the final examination as second Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist in Science, 1852. He also obtained Bishop Law’s Mathematical prize in 1853.
Having selected engineering as his profession, he passed the usual course in the engineering school of Trinity College, obtaining the diploma of the school and a special certificate of merit.
He then served a pupilage of one year to Mr. W. R. Le Fanu, M. Inst. C.E., now one of the Commissioners of Public Works for Ireland, during part of which time he was Assistant Resident Engineer on the Mallow and Fermoy Bailway, at that time in course of construction.
In 1859 he entered the service of the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway, in which he continued for nearly four years.
In 1863, on account of his mathematical attainments, he was appointed to the Calcutta Civil Engineering College, where he officiated as Principal. In 1864 he was made a Fellow of the Calcutta University. At the end of that year he entered the Public Works Department as an Executive Engineer, second grade. He was, in the first instance, posted to Assam, but his health suffered from the climate, and in 1865 he was compelled to take furlough home, and while there was elected a Member of the Institution on the 4th of December, 1866.
Shortly after his return to India in 1867 he was transferred to the Punjab, and was employed on the remodelling of the Western Jumna Canal, having in the meantime been promoted to Executive Engineer, first grade.
In the years 1871-73 he officiated for various periods as Superintending Engineer of the whole of the Western Jumna Canal, the great Sirhind Canal, and of the lower portion of the Baree Doab Canal.
In 1874 he was deputed to Bengal in connection with the relief-works rendered necessary by the famine of that year. He had the supervision of such works as the embankments of the Gunduk river as Superintending Engineer, and received the thanks of Sir Richard Temple for his efficient management of them. He retained this charge after the famine, and returned to the Punjab in 1877, where he remained in the active discharge of his duties as an engineer in the irrigation branch till his death, which occurred at Mean Mir, from Delhi fever, on the 19th of December, 1883. He was an excellent mathematician, an energetic officer, and a good engineer; very successful in pushing on work. Mr. Martin was of a genial and kindly disposition, and was loved and esteemed by many friends in this country and in India. These are at present engaged in erecting a memorial tablet to him in the cathedral of his native city Cork.