Walter John Hammond (1849-1916)
Resident Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent, Paulista Railway, Jundihy, Sao Paulo, Brazil; (or care of Messrs. Fry Miers and Co., 8 Great Winchester Street, London, E.C.)
1916 Obituary [1]
WALTER JOHN HAMMOND was born at Ashford, Kent, on 21st January 1849.
He served a lengthy apprenticeship with the locomotive superintendent of the South Eastern Railway Co. at Ashford, and in 1871 went to Brazil as civil engineer on the Paulista Railway, of which he became manager at the age of twenty-four.
For his work in connexion with the navigation of the River Mogy-Quassu, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Rose of Brazil by the Emperor Dom Pedro II. By contract with the Government, a slave was freed from liability to capture within the railway concessions, which were treated as English property, a regulation which led to the exposure and alleviation of many cases of cruelty. In 1887 the slaves were liberated, and at the time of the Brazilian revolution in 1888 his intimate knowledge of the country and the language enabled him to exercise a sedative influence.
After twenty-one years' uninterrupted labour in sao Paulo, he returned to England in 1892 and settled at Knockholt, near Sevenoaks. He then became a director of various companies, including the San Paulo Railway, the Amazon Steam Navigation Co., etc., and in the interests of the last named, he went up the River Amazon into Peru.
His death took place at his residence at Knockholt, on 11th August 1916, in his sixty-eighth year.
He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1875.
1916 Obituary [2]