1896 - 97 .] 
Chairman's Opening Address. 
175 
burgh. Subsequently he was appointed Resident Engineer on 
the Portpatrick Railway. When this was completed, he was 
appointed Resident Engineer on the Galashiels and Peebles line. 
In 1869 he was appointed Engineer to the Dundee Harbour Trust, 
which post he held for the remainder of his life. .Among other 
works which he executed while thus engaged in his native town, 
he deepened the bed of the Tay 10 feet opposite the Harbour 
Works, constructed a large graving dock, and invented a 
large caisson for use at dock entrances. He died on 13th June 
1896. 
The Rev. Thomas Milville Raven studied at St David’s 
College, Lampeter, and received the Lambeth degree of M.A., 
conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was ordained 
in 1852. After serving in various curacies for sixteen years, he 
was, in 1867, appointed Yicar of St Gregory’s, Crakehall, with St 
Mary Magdalene’s, Langthorne. He was made Surrogate of the 
Diocese of Ripon in 1878. Some years ago he built, entirely at 
his own expense — about ,£3000 — St Mary Magdalene’s Church 
at Langthorne. He maintained this church at his own cost 
besides meeting part of the expenditure in connection with St 
Michael’s Church, Crakehall. His favourite occupation was 
photography, in which he acquired proficiency, and one year he 
won the first prize medal of the British Photographic Society. 
He was a member of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. He 
died at the age of 68. 
James Abernethy, once President of the Institution of Civil 
Engineers, was born at Aberdeen on 14th June 1814, and was 
at first educated in a school in that city, and subsequently, along 
with his brother George, at Cotherstone, near Barnard Castle, 
which is believed to be the original of Charles Dickens’ description 
of Dotheboys Hall. Whether Cotherstone was the identical school 
or not, the system was at any rate similar. Fortunately, one day 
a clerical uncle visited his nephews, and realising their unhappy 
condition, took them to his manse near Haddington, where they 
attended the Grammar School. In 1833 James Abernethy went 
to Sweden to investigate a manganese mine, and remained there 
for four years. He was afterwards employed as Assistant Engineer 
at the Goole Docks, the Aire and Calder Canal, and the railway 
