MEGAW, DAVID

County surveyor for Co. Antrim from 1914 until 1927. David Megaw, son of John Megaw and his wife Ellen, née Dick, was born in Co. Antrim on 26 August 1869.(1) He was educated at the Coleraine Academical Institution from 1884 to 1888 and then studied engineering at Queen's College, Belfast, from 1891-1894. Between 1894 and 1900 he gained practical experience as an assistant to JAMES OTWAY  JAMES OTWAY in Waterford, JOHN HARRIS HAZLETT SWINEY  JOHN HARRIS HAZLETT SWINEY in Belfast, and JAMES PERRY  JAMES PERRY in Galway. In 1900 he became an assistant county surveyor for Co. Antrim under JOHN BRETT JOHN BRETT . Following Brett's retirement, Megaw was appointed county surveyor in his place in February 1914, with a salary of £600 per annum, rising to £700, with £150 travelling expenses.(1) He held the post until his death, which occurred on 14 August 1927 in a Derry nursing home after he had been taken ill on holiday in Greencastle, Co. Donegal. His obituarist in the Irish Builder noted that 'the state of perfection in which the majority of the roads in County Antrim now are was due to his painstaking policy' and singled out the main road from Belfast to Coleraine and Portrush for particular praise.

ICEI: elected member, 1 December 1915.(2)

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from ICEI membership applications, IV, 194, and the brief obituary in IB 69, 20 Aug 1927, 605.

(1) www.familysearch.org.
(2) IB 56, 28 Feb 1914, 127; Building News 106, 6 Mar 1914, 352.
(3) TICEI 42 (1915-1916), ?.