Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Railway engineer. David Reid Edgeworth was born at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, on 14 April 1842, the fourth son of Francis Edgeworth and a grandson of RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH . After a short period in the Navy, he was articled to GEORGE WILLOUGHBY HEMANS  GEORGE WILLOUGHBY HEMANS in 1856 or 1857, and on completing his pupilage in 1860 was employed by Hemans on various railway projects in Ireland. He spent a year as assistant engineer on the Longford & Sligo Railway, two years as resident engineer on the Streamstown & Clara railway, a year as resident engineer on the Athenry & Ennis railway and a year and a half as district engineer on the Enniskillen, Bundoran & Sligo railway. Towards the end of 1865 he set up in independent practice and became interested in the reclamation and cultivation of lands on the Wexford coast.

Edgworth died on 14 October 1871 after catching pneumonia as the result of inspecting reclamation works in bad weather. He is described as a man of energy and keen intellect, possessing some of his grandfather's mechanical ingenuity. He was the inventor of a machine for rapidly measuring distances.

Inst.CE: elected member, 4 Feb 1868.

See WORKS.



References

All the information in this entry is from the obituary of Edgeworth in Min.Proc.ICE 36 (1872-3), 264-5