Edmund Phillips Hannaford

Edmund Phillips Hannaford engraved his name high on the roll of the promoters of railway interests in Canada. To no other single agency is progress so largely indebted as to railway building and thus it is that E. P. Hannaford deserves to be numbered among the public benefactors of his country. Throughout his entire life he was connected with railway projects and the superb engineering department of the Grand Trunk system is largely a monument to his skill, ability and sagacity. A native of Devonshire, England, Mr. Hannaford was born at Stoke Gabriel, on the 12th of December, 1834, and he was a youth of but seventeen years when he entered the railway service as draftsman and assistant under Sir I. K. Brunel. Through the succeeding four years he was a member of the engineering corps of the South Devon Railway and in 1856 he became identified with the development of railway projects in Canada. Following his arrival in the new world he became connected with the Grand Trunk Railway and acted as assistant engineer of the company from 1857 until 1866. In the latter year he was appointed chief engineer of the western division and further promotion awaited him in his appointment in 1869 to the position of chief engineer of the company. He remained in that connection for twenty-seven years, resigning from active work in 1896. He was in charge of the engineering department during the period of the greatest development of the railway and managed the construction of all new lines and stations of the company. His particular talent made him very successful in drawing up the plans of yards or overcoming any difficulty in the way of construction. No better proof of his work can be given than the fact that it is now generally admitted that the Grand Trunk has one of the best lines of any railway in Canada. The general offices at Point St. Charles were also erected under his direction.

In addition to his work in connection with the Grand Trunk Railway Mr. Hannaford in 1879 was named chief engineer of the Montreal & Champlain Junction Railway. Ten years before he had been chief engineer of the International bridge and in 1883 he became chief engineer of the Jacques Cartier Union and United States and Canada Railways.

It was in 1859, in Belleville, Ontario, that Mr. Hannaford was united in marriage to Miss Mary W. Roy, a daughter of Robert Maitland Roy, of Scotland, who became a resident of Belleville in 1837. He served in the war of the rebellion in defense of his country’s interests and long held public office, serving for a quarter of a century as town clerk. Mr. and Mrs. Hannaford became the parents of seven children, of whom four survived the father: Elizabeth, who was Mrs. Harry B. Eastty, of Mount Vernon, New York, and died August 3, 1913; R. Maitland, assistant chief engineer of the Montreal Street Railway Company; Edmund P., who is located at Corpus Christi, Texas; and Miss Mary R. Hannaford, at home.

Mr. Hannaford belonged to the Church of St. James the Apostle and his social nature found expression in his membership in the St. James Club. He was a public-spirited man, deeply interested in all that pertained to the welfare and upbuilding of Canada, yet his tastes inclined him to domesticity and in the home circle he was a most devoted husband and father. He was a man of fine personal appearance and impressive manner, yet withal was most genial and affable, and, wherever he went and formed acquaintanceship, it constituted the beginning of warm and enduring friendships.

Mr. Hannaford died August 18, 1902.