Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer and architect, of Cork. Robert Boyle Chillingworth was born in at 1 Audley Place, Cork, on 28 July 1878, a younger son of Thomas Hare Chillingworth, butter merchant of that city. He was was educated at Cork Grammar School and entered the School of Engineering at Queen's College, Cork, in 1897, at which time his parents were living at 30 Patrick's Hill, Cork. After graduating in 1902,(1) he assisted WILLIAM HENRY HILL [2].  WILLIAM HENRY HILL [2]. on the construction of the Cork & Muskerry Light Railway. From 1903 until 1905 he was an assistant in the office of W.H. HILL & SON HILL & SON , working on a variety of projects. These included a sewerage scheme and other works for the Cork Rural District Council, to which W.H. Hill [2] was consulting engineer, and the preparation of parliamentary plans for the proposed Cork Junction Railway. In the autumn of 1905 he obtained by competitive examination the position of clerk of works to the Congested Districts Board in Cos. Mayo and Sligo.

In about 1911 Chillingworth, having applied unsuccessfully for the county surveyorships of Co. Offaly and of North Co. Mayo,(2) set up in independent practice in partnership with DANIEL LEVIE DANIEL LEVIE , under the name of CHILLINGWORTH & LEVIE. CHILLINGWORTH & LEVIE. (3) At some point in his career he received a secret commission to search for a source of supply for a cement works in Co. Cork; he subsequently submitted a paper on this topic to the Institution of Civil Engineers.(4) According to family tradition, he caught tuberculosis while working for the Congested Districts Board. He died at his home at Woodville, Rochestown on 2 December 1916. He was unmarried.

InstCE: elected associate member 3 December 1907.(5)

Addresses: Work: Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, 1906; South Mall, Cork, 1911;(6) 11 South Mall, Cork, <=1912(7) until death.
Home: 30 Patrick's Hill, Cork, 1897;(8) Rochestown, Co. Cork, 1911;(9) Woodville, Rochestown, Co. Cork, <=1907(10) until death.

See WORKS, BIBLIOGRAPHY. S BIBLIOGRAPHY. S ee also CHILLINGWORTH & LEVIE. CHILLINGWORTH & LEVIE.



References

All information not otherwise accounted for is from the records of the Institution of Civil Engineers, courtesy of Mrs Carol Morgan, or was communicated by R.B. Chillingworth's nephew, R.J. Chillingworth, of Friedheim, Baily, Howth, Co. Dublin, by telephone on 4 Jan 1994. A brief biography of Chillingworth is in the 'Contemporary Biographies' section of Richard J. Hodges, Cork and County Cork in the Twentieth Century (1911), 177, which also reproduces a portrait photograph of him.

(1) Information about Chillingworth's university career is from Queen's College, Cork, admission records.
(2) Midland Tribune, 28 Aug 1909; Connaught Telegraph, 4 Mar 1911 (B.O'D.).
(3) IB 53, 28 Oct 1911, 726. The association is said by R.J. Chillingworth to have been not altogether happy.
(4) This paper does not appear to have been published.
(5) Min. Proc.Inst.CE 1907-8, Pt. 1, 173.
(6) IB 53, 28 Oct 1911, 726.
(7) IB 54, 3 Aug 1912, 457.
(8) See note 1, above.
(9) IB 53, 5 Aug 1911, 529.
(9) Guy's Cork Almanac & Directory (1916), 407.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for CHILLINGWORTH, ROBERT BOYLE


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CARRICKBRACK ROAD (HOWTH), FRIEDHEIM
Date: 1911-1912
Nature: Villa for his brother, J. Chillingworth. Prototype for a new building system, consisting of timber frame with expanded metal infills plastered with sand and cement.  Builder: Murphy, Cork.

Refs: Design, 1911, in Cork City & County Archives, Chillingworth & Levie Collection, B111;  IB 53, 5 Aug,28 Oct 1911, 529,726; 54, 2 Mar,22 Jun 1912, 132,361;  information from Tim Chillingworth, grandson of J. Chillingworth, Nov 2010.