Francis Fowke

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Fowke, Francis, Captain, R.E., was born at Belfast in 1823. After studying in the Military College, Woolwich, he in 1842 obtained a commission in the Engineers, and was ordered to Bermuda. He soon distinguished himself, and on his return home, superintended the erection of several government buildings, the Industrial Museum, Edinburgh, the National Gallery, Dublin, the London Exhibition buildings of 1862, and others. He had just commenced the South Kensington Museum, when he died from the bursting of a blood-vessel, 3rd December 1865, aged about 42. The plan of the Albert Hall, London, was based upon his suggested designs. Besides his architectural labours, he made important improvements in fire-engines, travelling scaffolds, and collapsing pontoons.

Sources

40. Biographical Division of English Cyclopaedia, with Supplement: Charles Knight, 7 vols. London, 1856-'72.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

Show fewer titles