■ o4 MONTHLY. I* ° 
Vol. XIV. 
COLOMBO, NOVEMBER ist, 1894. 
No. 5. 
MR. WILLIAM SHELFORD, c . K, 
CO-PROJECTOR OF THE INDO-OEYLON RAILWAY. 
NSTEAD of a Ceylon planting- 
Pioneer — or a district plant- 
ing map (the difficulties of re- 
production causing delay) — ! 
we venture this month to lay- 
before our readers a portrait 
of Mr. William Shelford C.E., 
whose name has become very familiar to the Ceylon 
public during the past year ; while, we trust, it 
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 
Indo-Ceylon Railway scheme with which Sir 
George Bruce and Mr. Shelford have identified! 
themselves. That the scheme in 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 Pau,m- 
ben. It will be observed that Mr. Shelford is 
one of the Consulting Engineers for Railways to 
the Colonial Office, 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 
for the Colombo Tramways — a position that may 
yet lead to his taking an interest in supplying 
tramways to many of the planting districts in 
our iiill country to connect them with the main 
line of railway. A brother of Mr. Shelford is 
well-known in the East as a merchant in Singa- 
pore and an energetic member of the Straits 
Legislative Council. 
We quotef roni The Indian Engineer as follows :— 
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 mathematical 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 office 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, 
