Arthur Sulivan (1852-1885)
1885 Obituary [1]
ARTHUR SULIVAN, the second son of Colonel Sulivan (late 5th Royal Irish Lancers), was born at Bath on the 28th of April, 1852.
He was educated first at Shrewsbury, and then entered the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper’s Hill, where, after being first in the two previous years’ examinations, he came out first also in the final examination in 1876, and in consequence of his attainments was made a Fellow.
He joined the Public Works Department of India in October 1876, and was placed in charge of exceptionally heavy works for a junior assistant on the Holkar and Neemuch (State) Railway. The Sewbridge of eleven spans of 100 feet, the Simli of nine spans of 40 feet, a large number of minor works, the platelaying, train-management, and quarries, were all directly under him, and his services were several times the subject of special recommendation to the Government of India.
In October 1881 Mr. Sulivan resigned his appointment, and took a contract for the erection of the ironwork on the Neemuch-Nusseerabad (State) Railway. In spite of several delays, he completed in five months thirty-one spans of 100 feet bridge-girders, and six spans of 60 feet.
On his return to India in October 1882, he undertook the metalling and consolidating of 36 miles of the Ujjain and Agar Road, in Central India, which occupied ten months. Having perfected a clever design for iron staging for rapid girder-erection, he completed in six and a half months thirty-five spans of 150-feet girders, twenty spans of 100-feet girders (weight aggregating 5,700 tons) on the Southern Mahratta Railway; at the same time, in May and June he finished the Sip" bridge at Ujjain, six spans of 150 feet.
In January 1885 he commenced the erection of the ironwork of the Sind-Pishin (State) Railway. The difficulties he met with from unusually heavy floods and the climate were terrible, and the work was closed by Government on account of a violent outbreak of cholera in June. Mr. Sulivan was on his way home, when he died on the 5th of July, 1885, of fever, brought on by overwork and exposure, at the early age of thirty-three....[more]