Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Railway engineer, of Belfast. William James Perrin Wakeman, who, according to the 1911 census, was born in Co. Dublin in 1861 or 1862, was a son of the antiquarian and topographical draughtsman William Frederick Wakeman, who was living in Dun Laoghaire when his son was born.(1) He joined the engineering staff of the Great Northern Railway Company in Enniskillen in 1878 and in 1883 was transferred to Belfast as assistant to the district engineer of the Northern Division. In 1900 he was promoted to the rank of district engineer. He was responsible for the construction of the Castlewellan and Newcastle extension in 1906 and the Armagh to Keady line in 1909.(2) He died in Belfast on 18 September 1926, less than a fortnight before he was due to retire. He married Sara Jane Pinkerton, sister of EDMUND SUFFERN PINKERTON EDMUND SUFFERN PINKERTON , circa 1898 but had no children at the time of the 1911 census.

ICEI: elected associate member, 17 May 1899;(3) transferred to class of member, 1903.(4)

Address: Home: 117 Cavehill Road, Belfast, 1898;  58 Cavehill Road, 1911.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary of Wakeman in IB 68, 2 Oct 1926, 752, and from ICEI membership applications, III, 100,186.

(1) W.F. Wakeman was living at 33 York St, Dun Laoghaire, in 1863; he later taught at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen.
(2) Dates of these lines are given by S. Maxwell Hajducki, A Railway Atlas of Ireland (1974), Maps 8 & 9.
(3) TICEI 28 (1898-1801), ?.
(4) Lists of members in TICEI.