XIX 



name was William O'Shaughnessy, but he took the name of Brooke 

 on the death of a relative of that name. He graduated as M.D. at 

 Edinburgh in 1833, and shortly afterwards joined the Bengal Army 

 as Assistant Surgeon. He was promoted to Surgeon in 1848, and to 

 Surgeon-Major in 1858. In 1835 he was appointed Professor of 

 Chemistry in the Medical College at Calcutta. From 1844 to 1851 

 he acted as Assay Master of the Calcutta Mint. He was of a 

 scientific turn of mind, and took readily to the experiments made by 

 Cooke and Wheatstone in telegraphy in 1837. He made some experi- 

 ments in submarine telegraphy across the Hooghly, at Calcutta, in 

 1839, and he was the first to introduce the telegraph into India. In 

 1852 he was appointed Superintendent- General of Telegraphs in 

 India, and he retained that post until 1862, when he resigned and 

 retired from the Indian Medical Service. He was the author of 

 several papers on scientific and engineering subjects, many of which 

 appeared in the Journals of the Asiatic Society. He was knighted 

 for his valuable services in establishing the service of telegraphs 

 throughout India, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 in 1843. 



W. H. P. 



Walter Weldon, F.R.S.; born 31st October, 1832; died 20th 

 September. 1885. Very little is known of the early history of the 

 subject of this memoir, beyond the bare facts that he was born at 

 Loughborough on the 31st October, 1832 ;' that he was the eldest son 

 of a manufacturer in that town, and was employed for some years in 

 his father's business ; that while so occupied he discovered a taste for 

 literature; and that, in his twenty-second year, he left his native 

 town, and arrived in London determined to make his way as a 

 journalist. With him he brought his young wife, whom he had just 

 married, and who was destined to be his never failing source of conso- 

 lation and encouragement during those early years of difficulty and 

 adversity which are invariably experienced by a young man beginning 

 an independent life under such circumstances. Young Weldon most 

 certainly had his full share of dark days ; and in speaking of them in 

 after life to those who knew him well, he loved to dwell on the sus- 

 tainment and encouragement he had derived from his devoted wife. 

 Apart from this, however, he was endowed by Nature with a 

 variety of gifts, any one of which might have enabled him to acquit 

 himself well in the battle of life, the combination of which was irre- 

 sistible, and served not only to raise him to a position of distinction and 

 honour, but to render him capable of performing work which has 

 undoubtedly been, and will probably long continue to be, a benefit to 

 civilised humanity. 



Mr. Weldon's first journalistic work was done in connexion with 



e 



