LEEBODY, JOHN WELSH

County surveyor for the Southern Division of Co. Tyrone, 1895-1933.(1) John Welsh Leebody was born in Derry on 8 January 1868 and educated at the Londonderry Academical Institution and Queen's College, Belfast, from which he graduated with the BA and BE degrees. He gained practical experience as an assistant to ABRAHAM MCCAUSLAND STEWART ABRAHAM MCCAUSLAND STEWART , of Derry, working on the contract plans for the Stranorlar and Glenties railway, and to JAMES OTWAY JAMES OTWAY , of Waterford. While he was with Otway he worked among other things on additions to the Waterford Asylum. In 1895 he was placed first in the competitive examination for county surveyors in Ireland and was appointed county surveyor for the Southern Division of Co. Tyrone, based in Dungannon. From 1924, following the resignation of FRANCIS JOHN LYNAM  FRANCIS JOHN LYNAM he was appointed county surveyor for the whole of Co. Tyrone at a salary of £1000 with a further allowance of £140 for his car.(2) A deputy surveyor, BENJAMIN GEORGE LITTLE GLASGOW BENJAMIN GEORGE LITTLE GLASGOW , was appointed at the same time.(3) Leebody remained in his post until 31 December 1934, when he retired.(4)  

Leebody died in Dungannon in 1952.  His obituary in the Irish Times records his interest in sport and the fact that he was one of the first people in Co. Tyrone to own a car.(5) According to the 1911 census he married his wife, Flora, in 1895 or 1896 and had at least two children.

ICEI: elected member, 1915.(6)
Incorporated Association of Municipal and County Engineers: elected member, 24 October 1896.(7)

Address: Knockanevin House, Dungannon, 1911.

See WORKS.

All information in this enty not otherwise attributed is from ICEI membership applications and from the 1911 census of Ireland, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ (last visited Nov 2009). For the fullest account of his career as a county surveyor, see Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 240-241.


(1) B.O'D.
(2) Tyrone Constitution, 19 Sep 1924 (B.O'D.).
(3) Tyrone Constitution, 31 Oct 1924 (B.O'D.).
(4) Tyrone Constitution, 28 Sep 1934 (B.O'D.); Irish Times, 10 Nov 1934. 
(5) Irish Times, 16 May 1952 (information from Brendan O'Donoghue 2015).
(6) ICEI lists of members.
(7) List of members in Proceedings of the Association of Municipal & County Engineers 29 (1902-3), xxiii.

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