John Edward Hartley (1831-1883)
1884 Obituary [1]
JOHN EDWARD HARTLEP was born on the 8th of July, 1831, at Wakefield in Yorkshire, and was educated at Pontefract.
After serving a regular pupilage to Mr. J. Tilson White, Civil and Mining Engineer, of Wakefield, he was engaged for nearly a year as assistant to Mr. W. T. Doyne, M. Inst. C.E., and for two years in a similar capacity under Mr. John Hughes, M. Inst. C.E.
Mr. Hartley went to Kurrachee in 1856, as one of the District Engineers on the works of the Scinde Railway. Here he had responsible charge of the laying out and construction of a portion of the works, including the Mulleer Viaduct of twenty-one openings of 80-feet span each.
He returned to London in 1862, and was for some three years more or less connected with the same railway, when he went back to India as Chief Assistant to Mr. Charles Henfrey, the agent for |Messrs. Brassey, Wythes and Henfrey, on the construction of the Delhi and Punjab Railway contract at Umballa. He returned to England in 1871, and continued his professional career at home and abroad until the year 1880, when he went to Brazil as the representative of the Company and Chief Resident Engineer on the works of the Donna Thereza Christina Railway, which he did not, live to see finished.
Mr. Hartley brought to the exercise of his duties a sound judgment, a conciliatory demeanour, great assiduity, and a good practical knowledge of his profession. He was a man of the highest integrity and most straightforward and conscientious in all his doings. As a proof of this he was entrusted by Mr. Charley Henfrey to finish up and close the large railway contract in India beforementioned. And his services on the Donna Thereza Christina Railway received on more than one occasion the special recognition of the directors of the company.
He died at Laguna, in the Province of Santa Catharina, Brazil, on the 3rd of August, 1883, regretted and respected by all who knew him.
Mr. Hartley was elected a Member of the Institution on the 2nd of December. 18G2.