Henry Andrew Vivian (1824-1904)
1904 Obituary [1]
HENRY ANDREW VIVIAN, born at Camborne, Cornwall, on the 31st January, 1824, obtained his early engineering training in a mine in Devonshire, where he remained for about two years.
He then became Land and Mineral Agent and Manager of an estate at Eagle Hall, Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire, which post he held until 1858, when he obtained an appointment under Mr. Vignoles, Past-President, as an Assistant Engineer on the Bahia and San Francisco Railway.
In June, 1860, he went to Chili in the service of the Copiapo Smelting Company, and after eighteen months was appointed Engineer for the Copiapo Railway extension from Pabellon to Chanarcillo,.
In October, 1864, he became Manager and Engineer of the Coquimbo Railway, which post he held until 1896, when the line was purchased by the Chilian Government. During his management there occurred a tremendous flood, which swept away a large number of the bridges and viaducts of the railway. The stone piers were entirely demolished, nothing being left but the rails, kept together by the fish-plates. When he reconstructed this portion of the line he used the old rails for some of the piers, and those piers are still standing, although several floods have occurred since, the stone piers erected at the same time being swept away.
He returned in 1898 to England, where he remained until his death, which took place at Falmouth on the 25th January, 1904.
Mr. Vivian was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 1st December, 1868, and was subsequently placed in the class of Associate Members.