Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer. Alfred Dickinson Price, one of the nine sons of JAMES PRICE [1]  JAMES PRICE [1] and younger brother of JAMES PRICE [2] JAMES PRICE [2] , was born at Wicklow on 16 September 1857. He graduated BAI from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1878. From 1876, while he was still at Trinity, he assisted his father with work for the Midland Great Western Railway and with parliamentary plans for the Donegal Railway. He then worked for WILLIAM TRAILL  WILLIAM TRAILL on geological surveys, plans for drainage and waterworks and parliamentary surveys. In 1881 he was appointed resident engineer under KENNETT BAYLEY  KENNETT BAYLEY for the Killorglin branch of the Great Southern and Western Railway; from February 1886 until June 1887 he had the post of resident engineer of the Giant's Causeway railway extension in Co. Antrim, which included the construction of a viaduct over the river Bush. From 1887 until July 1889 he was district engineer under the Chief Hydraulic Engineer for Ireland, JOHN GEORGE GAMBLE JOHN GEORGE GAMBLE , engaged in field work and surveys for parliamentary plans and clearance works on the River Barrow. During the next sixteen months or so he made railway surveys for JAMES BARTON JAMES BARTON , JAMES OTWAY  JAMES OTWAY and others, reported to the government on routes for light railways for the development of underpopulated districts of Ireland, and was resident engineer for the River Suck drainage scheme.

Price was posted back to Co. Kerry on his appointment as resident engineer for the Great Southern and Western Railway's Killorglin and Valencia extension, which included the Gleensk and Valencia viaducts and a new wharf in the Valencia estuary. He returned to Dublin in 1894. On 30 January 1897 he was elected engineer to Bray Township commissioners.(1) He was also engineer to Blackrock Urban District Council before his appointment as Engineering Inspector of the Local Government Board in 1900.(2) He retired in 1922 or 1923.(3)

Price died in 1934. He was an active sportsman and was awarded the certificate of the Royal Humane Society for rescuing a boy from drowning. According to the 1911 census, he had married Henrietta, daughter of George Berford Fairbrother of Clonsilla Lodge, Co. Dublin, circa 1882 and had at least one son.

ICEI: elected member, 24 March 1897;(4) reads paper, 'The location, construction and equipment of light railways', 6 May 1896;(5) awarded Mullins Gold Medal for same, 2 December 1896;(6) resigned in or before 1911.
Inst.CE: elected associate member, 3 February 1885; transferred to member, 12 December 1893; resigned 21 February 1922.

Addresses: Work: Great Southern & Western Railway, Glenbeigh, Co. Kerry, 1893; 44 Harcourt Street, Dublin, 1895;(7) Local Government Board, Dublin, 1900->=1922..
Home: 101 Moyne Road, Rathmines, 1889; 17 Spencer Villas, Dun Laoghaire, 1894-1895; Headview, Novara Avenue, Bray, Co. Wicklow, 1896-7; Melrose, Putland Road, Bray, 1898; 3 Fortfield Villas, Palmerston Park, Dublin, 1901; 12 Temple Villas, Palmerston Road, <=1904->=1907.

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from the records of Inst.CE (kindly supplied by Mrs Carol Morgan, Archivist), from the biography of Dickinson in E. Macdowel Cosgrave, ed., Dublin and County Dublin in the Twentieth Century (1908), 260, which is illustrated with a portrait photograph, and from TICEI lists of members.

(1) IB 39, 1 Feb 1897, 23.
(2) IB 42, 1 Aug 1900, 444.
(3) His resignation from Inst.CE on 21 Feb 1922 suggests that he retired at this time; he is named as the occupant of the post in Thom's Directory for 1922 but is referred to as 'late Inspector' in IB 66, 12 Jan 1924, ?.
(4) TICEI 26 (1896-97), 94.
(5) TICEI 25 (1895-96), 93-124.
(6) TICEI 26 (1896-97), 40.
(7) This was his father's office address from 1887 or earlier until his death in 1895.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for PRICE, ALFRED DICKINSON


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Building: CO. KERRY, GLEENSK, VIADUCT
Date: 1893a
Nature: 11-span viaduct on 650ft radius curve. Built by T.K. Falkiner. For Great Southern & Western Railway Co.
Refs: R.C. Cox & M.H. Gould, Civil Engineering Heritage: Ireland (1998), 260

Building: CO. WICKLOW, BRAY, SIDMONTON AVENUE, HOUSES
Date: 1897
Nature: ADP's plans for new terraces & houses at Sidmonton Ave, Dargle Rd, accepted.
Refs: Wicklow Newsletter, 10 Jul 1897

Author Title Date Details
Price, Alfred Dickinson 'The location, construction, and equipment of light or secondary railways in Ireland' 1896 TICEI 25 (1895-96), 93-124