Public Works Department

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The Public Works Department was a government department that was responsible for buildings, roads, irrigation and railways.

  • The Military Works branch detatched from the PWD and became the Military Works Service under the Indian Army in 1899.
  • Europeans employed on State Railways were usually on the strength of the PWD and therefore a civil servant (eligible for pension etc). NB in this context, if your ancestor turns up on a railway in India and the record contains "PWD" in the note or description, then this does not refer to "Permanent Way Department" (as it would in a UK context) but to the Public Works Department!

Departmental Structure

The PWD around 1870 was headed by the PWD Secretary to the Government of India – a consultant engineer and advisor to Viceroy and Council. Deputy Secretaries were responsible for the Departments of :

  • Irrigation
  • Railways and
  • Military Engineering

Local Government had its PWD Secretary who was

Under him, Superintending Engineers were responsible for District, or a major project ie: a railway line.

Executive Engineers reported to the Superintending Engineers and were project managers for the single project. they would control:

  • 2 or 3 Assistant Engineers,
  • 5 or 6 European Overseer (NCO’s)
  • 8/10 Native overseers and
  • Office staff

Training

  • School of Military Engineering at Chatham, UK (1812) Colonial expansion resulted in a centralised establishment to teach civil engineering and architecture to officers destined for the colonies.
  • The Royal Engineering College at Cooper’s Hill, UK (1871) specifically trained Civil Engineers heading out to India to join the PWD.
  • Thomason College, Roorkee. From around 1870 Assistant Engineers are drawn from civilian staff or the Royal Engineers, Artillery or line Officers were trained at Roorkee. New Engineering Officers to India spent a year at Roorkee serving with the Bengal Sappers and Miners, to acclimatise and become linguistically fluent.

Thomason College was a small training college, with a staff of five. It offered a two year Engineering Course for potential Assistant Engineers.

Graduates from Cooper’s Hill joined the imperial service, while those from Thomason College were destined for provincial service. Those specialising in Military Building including architecture would be based in a town, while those choosing the Irrigation, or the Railways would find themselves in a remote rural hinterland. Some students became members of the Survey Dept.

Those students with a particular interest in architecture were encouraged to specialise, as there was a great demand for architects.

At the time Indian Universities were formed (1860 onwards) they took inspiation from home, where Universities taught Engineering (full-time architectural education did not begin in England until 1892 at King’s College) so they copied the existing educational model.

English trained PWD engineers endorsed the training of Indian engineers at local colleges. Architectural critics (echoing the Design Reform Movement that showcased its views at the 1851 Great Exhibition) suggested that engineers had insufficient design education - allowing them to copy European styles, but not innovate designs for India. This was voiced in the 1868 Bombay Builder magazine - argued that engineers in Britain were never employed to design landmark buildings (Law Courts, Government buildings etc).

Arguably, Engineers on colonial service addversely the training of Indian technicians, and this continued until Indian Universities, captivated with Modernism, offered Architecture Courses - in the run up to Independence. A result was several generations had not studied India’s rich architectural history. Accepting this the JJ School of Art Bombay looked forward, visioning the use of concrete a new material that would in time house India's masses.

As well as Thomason College, Roorkee housed:

  • Headquarters for the Bengal Sappers and Royal Engineers in Bengal
  • Foundry
  • Quarter Master Course - seven month course


FIBIS Resources

  • Hugh Wilding, "M.I.C.E. in the branches: a family history work in progress" FIBIS Journal No 23 (Spring 2010), pages 28-38. M.I.C.E. stands for Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. An account of researching a civil engineer in the Public Works Department. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals
  • Hugh Wilding, "Building the Beas Bridge" FIBIS Journal No 24 (Autumn 2010), pages 50-53. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals.

Records

  • The ICE Virtual Library (Institution of Civil Engineers) may be searched for an obituary of an ICE member, which often gives details of a person's work history. This India List post suggests trying the Archivist at the ICE.

Individuals

  • Frederick Lewis Dibblee. Railway engineer. Worked in India 1864-1888
  • Tom Salkield , was Engineer to the Municipality of Delhi 1905-1922. He was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind decoration for public service in India .He was also in the Punjab Volunteer Rifles for 16 years..There are further details in his ICE obituary

External links

Historical books online

  • "Public Works in the Bengal Presidency" by Major General George Borlase Tremenheere, of the Bengal Engineers from Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (Great Britain) 1858 page 483 (Google Books). He also gave evidence in 1858 to a House Of Commons Select Committe on Colonisation and Settlement in India, see Parliamentary Papers 1858 (Google Books).
  • Professional papers on Indian engineering
Volume 1 1863-64, Volume 2 1865, Volume 3 1866, Volume 4 1867, Volume 5 1868, Volume 6 1869 Google Books.
Volume 7, 1870 is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Preface computer page 3 Index commences computer page 10 (first page of index missing)
Second Series Volume 2 1873, Second Series Volume 5 1876, Second Series Volume 7 1878, Second Series Volume 8 1879 Archive.org

Current Books

  • The Indian Metropolis, Evenson, Norma. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1989.
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