Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer with the Public Works Department of India. Hart was born in Cork on 23 June 1881, the son of John S. Hart and his wife Alicia Clara, nee Donegan. After attending the Presentation College, Cork, in 1900 he entered Queen's College, Cork, where he spent only six months before transferring to the Royal College of Engineering, Cooper's Hill, London. On leaving the college in 1903,(1) he joined the Indian Public Works Department in Madras. He was promoted to Executive Engineer in 1911 and Superintending Engineer in 1927. Between 1890 and 1934 he was Engineer-in-Chief for the Cauveny Mettur Dam, which at the time of its construction was the biggest solid gravity dam in the world. In recognition of his work he was presented with the Companionship of the Star of India by King George V in 1935. He retired to Co. Cork in the same year. He died on 29 January 1939 at his house, Lota Beg, Glanmire, Co. Cork, survived by his wife, Evelyn (nee Sheedy) whom he had married in 1922, and their only child, a daughter.

Inst.CE: elected associate member, 3 December 1907.(2)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the brief obituary of Hart in IB 81, 18 Feb 1939, 130, and Who was Who 1929-1940, 602.

(1) Information about Hart's early education is from his AMInst.CE candidate's circular, 1906, courtesy of Mrs Carol Morgan, Archivist, Inst.CE.
(2) Information from Mrs Carol Morgan.