<4 MONTHLY. tx> 
Vol. XIV. 
COLOMBO, NOVEMBER ist, 1894. 
No. 5. 
MR. WILLIAM SHELFORD, c . e. , 
CO-PROJECTOR OF THE lNDO-OF.VT\n\r lunate 
is destined to be closely associated with the develop- 
ment of the North-western portion of the Island 
and of railway traffic between India and Ceylon. 
We are indebted for the engraved block from which 
we print, and also for the letter-press which we 
reproduce below, to the courtesy of the proprietors 
and editor of The Indian Engineer, to whom 
we return our best thanks. Curiously enough the 
writer of the memoir takes no notice of the 
Tndo-Ceylon Railway scheme with which Sir 
George Bruce anil Mr. Shelford have identified 
themselves. That the scheme is by no means 
moribund is shown by the countenance given to 
it by the Indian authorities, the present Secretary 
of State for India (Mr. Henry Fowler) being es- 
pecially favourable to the proposal. The Madras 
Government, too, has just given orders for the 
survey of the section between Madias and Paum- 
ben. It will bo observed that Mr. Shelford is 
one of the Consulting Engineers for Railways to 
the Colonial Ollice, so he ought to be able to 
make himself heard there ; and another link 
with Ceylon has just been formed in that Mr. 
Shelford has been appointed Consulting Engineer 
MR. William Shelford. 
The subject of our memoir this week is Mr. 
William Shelford, a Member of Council of the 
Institution of Civil Engineers, who has lately 
shown the interest he takes in Indian 
Railways by his address to the London Chamber 
of Commerce, which we have reason to hope will 
have some practical results. The son of a 
Wrangler and a member of a family distinguished 
in niathenietical honours at Cambridge University 
for several generations, Mr. Shelford, who is 
still in the prime of life and looks it, combines 
theoretical knowledge with, as will be seen, very 
great practical experience, and is sure to keep 
his place for many years in the front rank of the 
profession. 
Trained, as' young engineers were wont to be 
in those days in engine shops, Scotch ones in his 
case and in the Glasgow and other gravitation 
water-works, young Shelford entered the oflice of 
Mr. (now Sir John) Fowler at an early age and 
began his railway engineering career chiefly in con- 
nection with the first section of the Underground 
Railway in London, a most valuable experience, 
as the difficulties to be overcome were both novel, 
