Charles Coles Adley
Charles Coles Adley (1828-1896)
1896 Obituary [1]
CHARLES COLES ADLEY, second son of the Rev. W. Adley, for thirty-four years Rector of Rudbaxton, Pembrokeshire, was born on the 10th of September, 1828.
After being educated at King William’s College in the Isle of Man, he was apprenticed to Edward Highton, Telegraph Engineer to the London and North Western Railway Company, by whom he was before the expiration of two years appointed a salaried assistant.
Having been offered by the Government of India the post of Assistant to Sir William O'Shaughnessy, Director of Telegraphs in India, he left England in 1853. On the voyage out, however, circumstances occurred which induced him to resign the post, and on arriving in India he entered the service of the East Indian Railway Company.
After acting for eighteen months as an Assistant Engineer on the Burdwan division, and for a year as Resident Engineer on the construction of the Raniganj division, he was appointed Superintendent of the Telegraph Department of the line.
In 1858 Mr. Adley, in addition to his ordinary duties, founded the Engineers' Journal and Railway and Public Works Chronicle of India and the Colonies, published at Calcutta, of which he was the proprietor and editor.
He resigned his post on the East Indian Railway in 1862 and returned to England, where he lived for a time on a moderate competency.
After the death of his wife, however, Mr. Adley entered in 1868 the service of the Public Works Department of the Government of India. His first duty was the design of the Small Arms Factory at Dum-Dum, in the province of Bengal, and he was highly commended by the Government for the completeness and rapidity of execution of that work.
He was then engaged in designing drainage and irrigation works for the improvement of the famine and fever-stricken districts near the banks of the Hooghly. This duty he carried out with such energy that his health suffered materially, and he found himself compelled to resign the service.
Mr. Adley then devoted his attention chiefly to mining engineering, and became connected with the Nerbudda Coal and Iron Company and other similar undertakings in India. In consequence, however, of ill-health - he suffered from chronic asthma, the origin of which he attributed to employment in the marshy districts of Bengal - he retired from active work and returned to England in 1873.
Mr. Adley died at Bath on the 11th of April, 1896, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Up to the last he was a constant contributor to periodical literature on a variety of subjects. He found his favourite recreation in field sports. In disposition he was quiet and unobtrusive.
Mr. Adley was elected an Associate on the 1st of April, 1862, and was subsequently placed in the class of Associate Member. In 1852 he had contributed to the Institution a Paper entitled, 'The Electric Telegraph; its History, Theory, and Practical Applications.' He was also the author of several pamphlets on telegraphy and other subjects, some of which may be found in the Library.