John Clark (1831-1868)
John Clark (1831-1868)
1870 Obituary [1]
MR. JOHN CLARK was born at Bristol on the 13th of September, 1831.
He commenced his professional career under Mr. Charles Underwood, Architect, of Clifton, and was then for a short time engaged under the late Mr. George Aitchison (Assoc. Inst. C.E.).
He was afterwards employed for about two years under Mr. Vignoles, F.R.S. (Pres. Inst. C.E.), on the Frankfort, Wiesbaden, and Cologne railway, and next, for nearly six years, again under Mr. Aitchison.
He then entered the service of the Great Northern Railway Company, and was for three years an Assistant at King’s Cross, in the office of the Engineer, and for two years was principal Assistant Engineer, under Mr. Brydone (M. Inst. C.E.), and Mr. Richard Johnson (M. Inst. C.E.), respectively.
In 1863 he went to China, and was for three years Engineer to the Municipal Council of Shanghai, for whom he carried out drainage works, river embankments, timber bridges, floating and other jetties, etc.
In l866 he came to this country, his health being much impaired, but he returned to China in the following year, and was appointed 'Assistant Surveyor-General' at Hong Kong, with permission to take private business.
He died of heart disease, from which he had been a sufferer for some months, on the 16th of October, 1868, in his thirty-eighth year, and was buried in the cemetery at Hong Kong.
He was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 8th of January, 1867, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects on the 28th of January, 1867.
Actuated by a high sense of duty, possessing considerable professional knowledge and experience, and being extremely painstaking and careful, his death was a great loss to the colony, where he seems to have been universally loved and respected.