Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for the Western Division of Co. Limerick, 1874-77, and for Co. Waterford, 1877-1914. William Edmund Duffin, son of the Rev. William Duffin (d.1882), vicar of Maghera, Co. Down, and his wife Lucy, daughter of Edmund L'Estrange, of Hunstanton, Co. Offaly,(1) was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of seventeen in 1860 and obtained the BA degree in 1865(2) and the Licence in Civil Engineering in 1866.(3) After graduating he spent a year as a pupil of Sir JOHN and TELFORD MACNEILL TELFORD MACNEILL , then worked for WILLIAM LEWIS  WILLIAM LEWIS in Dublin, then for CHARLES GALWAY  CHARLES GALWAY on the Central Ireland Railway, followed by two and a half years on the Geological Survey of Ireland. In the spring of 1874 he was appointed county surveyor for the western division of Co. Limerick, a post which he held until the autumn of 1877 when he was transferred to the county surveyorship of Waterford. He retired from the Waterford post in October 1914(4) to be succeeded by JOHN KINGSTON BOWEN  JOHN KINGSTON BOWEN the following April. His pupils and assistants included GEORGE HASTINGS JEPHSON  GEORGE HASTINGS JEPHSON and RICHARD WILLIAM FREDERICK LONGFIELD RICHARD WILLIAM FREDERICK LONGFIELD .

After his retirement Duffin lived in Dublin. He died on 25 July 1925 at the age of 82 and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery. He had married Alice Susie, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Seymour Eager, rector of Drumgooland, Co, Down, on 1 April 1880.(4) They had at least one son, who died at the age of two in 1884.(5)

GLFI: elected member of Lodge 225, Dublin, 13 April 1873, and raised 6 June 1874.(6)
ICEI: elected member, March 1878; awarded Smith premium for paper, 'The encroachment of the sea, beaches, and groynes' read 13 February 1884.(7)

Addresses: Home: 9 Fitzwilliam St Lr, Dublin, 1873;(8) Tramore House, Co. Waterford, 1878; Whitechurch House, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, 1884->=1887; Larkfield, Waterford, <=1889-1913; 2 Orwell Park, Rathgar, Co. Dublin, <=1917 until death.

See WORKS, BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from ICEI Membership Applications, II, 57, ICEI membership lists and from Brendan O'Donoghue.

(1) J.B. Leslie, ed., Succession Lists of the Diocese of Dromore (1933), 193.
(2) G.D. Burtchaell & T.U. Sadleir, eds., Alumni Dublinenses (1935), Supplement, 35.
(3) R.C. Cox, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering 1843-1993 (1993).
(4) IB 56, 26 Oct 1914, 598.
(5) Waterford County Library death register database at www.waterford county library.ie (B.O'D.).
(6) GLFI archives.
(7) TICEI 16 (1884-85), ? .
(8) See note 6, above.


8 work entries listed in chronological order for DUFFIN, WILLIAM EDMUND L'ESTRANGE


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Building: CO. WATERFORD, KNOCKMAHON, KNOCKMAHON BRIDGE
Date:
Nature: Described as 'the first ferro-concrete bridge to be erected in Ireland'.
Refs: L.G. Mouchel & Partners, Hennebique Ferro-Concrete (1909), 265 (illus.) (in IAA collection, IEI 151)

Building: CO. WATERFORD, BALLYDUFF (LISMORE), BRIDGE
Date: 1887
Nature: 2-span cast-iron road bridge over R. Blackwater. Contractor: E.C. & J. Keay.
Refs: www.buildingsofireland.ie

Building: CO. WATERFORD, WATERFORD?, UNION WORKHOUSE?
Date: 1901
Nature: New 'Dist Chamber' for Board of Guardians.
Refs: IB 43, 13 Mar 1901, 657 (incompletely transcribed by Jones as 'New Dist Chamber for B[oard] of G[uardians]')

Building: CO. WATERFORD, DUNGARVAN, COUNTY OFFICES
Date: 1901
Nature: -
Refs: IB 43, 19 Dec 1901, 978; 44, 23 Oct 1902, 1444

Building: CO. WATERFORD, BALLYNEETY, BRIDGE
Date: 1903
Nature: Rebuilding
Refs: IB 45, 29 Jan 1903, 1578

Building: CO. WATERFORD, TRAMORE, SEA WALL
Date: 1905
Nature: -
Refs: IB 47, 22 Apr 1905, 286

Building: CO. WATERFORD, TRAMORE, PIER
Date: 1907
Nature: New.
Refs: IB 49, 5 Oct 1907, 702

Building: CO. WATERFORD, WATERFORD, BRIDGE OVER RIVER SUIR
Date: 1910-1913
Nature: New ferro-concrete bridge with lifting section. With M. Mouchel, chief engineer of Hennebique Co., & Alexander Mitchell Burden. Contractors: Kinnear, Moodie & Co., Glasgow. Lifting portion of bridge designed by Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co., Darlington; opening mechanism designed by Claude W.Hill, Westminster. Cost: £80,000. Begun Jun 1911. Opened 1913 by J.E. Redmond, MP.
Refs: IB 52, 9 Jul 1910, 450; 53, 18 Feb 1911, 121; 55, 4 Jan 1913, 6; J.O. Moynan, 'A short description of the existing bridges at Waterford and Portumna and of the proposed new bridges to replace them', TICEI 36 (1909-10), 224-250 (also published in IB 52, 25 Jun 1910, 405);  B 108, 27 Jun 1915, 739-40(illus.);  Edmund Downey, Waterford's Bridges (Waterford News, n.d.), ?; Holly Bough (Cork Examiner, 1952), 19.

Author Title Date Details
Duffin, William Edwin L'estrange 'The encroachment of the sea, beaches, and groynes' 1884 IB 26, 15 Feb 1884, ?; TICEI 15 (1883-4), 62-82.
Duffin, William Edwin L'estrange 'Two small waterworks' 1916 TICEI 42 (1915-16), 23-40.