Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for Co. Limerick, 1914-1929. Robert Davison was born in Belfast on 1 October 1872. After attending the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, the Endowed School, Bangor, and the Methodist College in Belfast, he entered the office of the Belfast City Surveyor, JOSIAH CORBETT BRETLAND JOSIAH CORBETT BRETLAND , in 1890, serving a three-year pupilage and subsequently becoming a member of the permanent staff. From 1895 until 1906, while he was working in the City Surveyor's office, he pursued his scientific training at the Municipal Technical Institute and Queen's College, Belfast, obtaining the BE degree of the Royal University of Ireland in 1906.

In 1914 Davison obtained second place in the county surveyorship qualifying examination and was appointed county surveyor for the eastern division of Co. Limerick on 1 April 1914. He was an advocate for the development of hydro-electric power. He remained in the Co. Limerick surveyorship until his retirement in 1929, when he returned to live in Belfast. He died at home in Belfast in April 1951.   According to the 1911 census, he had married his wife, Emily Margaret, circa 1908, and, at that stage, had a son and a daughter.

ICEI: elected associate member, 1 November 1905;(1) elected member, 1920; had resigned by 1930.(2)
Inst. CE: elected associate member, 4 December 1906; transferred to member, 20 February 1923; resigned, 1940.

Addresses: Work: City Surveyor's Office, Belfast, 1894-1914; County Surveyor's Office, 82/3 O'Connell Street, Limerick, 1914-1929.
Home: Rathcoole, Strandtown, Belfast, 1905;(3) 3 Hawthornden Road, Knock, Belfast, 1911;  Belmont Lodge, Knock, Belfast, 1929; Crofton, Knock, Belfast, 1931; Evergreen, Old Holywood Road, Belfast, 1936.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 145, the records of the Institution of Civil Engineers (kindly provided by Mrs Carol Morgan) and from the obituary of Davison in IB 93, 28 Apr 1951, 448.


(1) ICEI membership applications, III, 218.
(2) ICEI membership lists.
(3) See note 1, above.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for DAVISON, ROBERT


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Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, MILLFIELD, MILLFIELD FOUNDRY LTD.
Date: 1933
Nature: Additions to premises.
Refs: IB 75, 20 May 1933, 429