Cusack Patrick Roney

Sir Cusack Patrick Roney (baptised February 1809 – 30 September 1868) was an Irish civil servant who was a private secretary in the British Civil Service. He is most associated with the railway industry, being secretary to two railway companies and managing director of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. He was knighted for his role as secretary to the Great Industrial Exhibition held in Dublin in 1853.[3]

Sir

Cusack Patrick Roney
Lithograph by W. Underwood after a drawing by Frederick Gush[1]
Born1809[2]
Dublin, Ireland
Died30 September 1868 (aged 58–59)
London, England
NationalityIrish
Alma materTrinity College Dublin
OccupationWriter, company secretary, director
Board member ofGrand Trunk Railway Company of Canada

Early life and family

Cusack Roney was born in Dublin around 1809,[2][4] the son of Cusack Roney, who was twice president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and his wife, Charlotte.[5] He was educated in Paris and at Trinity College Dublin. He was admitted to Trinity College on 20 October 1823, aged 14½.[2] He received his BA in 1829. He qualified as a surgeon with the RCSI but did not pursue a medical career.[6]

He married Elizabeth Anne Whitcombe in 1807. She died in 1861. They had a son, Cusack Willes Roney.[6]

Career

Roney's early career was as a writer in London for The Athenaeum and other periodicals. He then had a succession of administrative jobs. He was secretary of the Royal Literary Fund from 1835 to 1837, manager at the Polytechnic Institution from 1839 or 1840, and private secretary to Richard More O'Ferrall when he was secretary to the Admiralty. He was then a clerk at the Admiralty.[6]

Roney's first railway appointment was as secretary to the Cambridge and Lincoln Railway Company in 1845. He was also secretary of the Eastern Counties Railway. He became managing director of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada in 1853,[6] whose corporate headquarters was in London. In 1855 he prepared a report with A. M. Ross and S. P. Bidder for the board of directors on the prospects for the Grand Trunk railway in Canada, concluding that it "cannot fail to prove a highly profitable enterprize".[7]

In 1853, he was knighted by Edward Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans for his role as secretary to the Great Industrial Exhibition, held that year in Dublin.[6]

In 1863–64, he was involved in a legal case relating to shares in The Llanharry Hematite Iron Ore Company Limited of which he was a director.[8]

Death

In 1868, Roney published Rambles on Railways, the publication of which was delayed by his serious illness. In the Preface, Roney stated that he had enough material for a further volume, mainly on foreign railways, that he expected to be published later the same year[9] but it never was and he died on 30 September 1868 at Cleveland Square, in the Bayswater district of London.[6]

Selected publications
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References
  1. Sir Cusack Patrick Roney, National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. Alumni Dublinenses : a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860). The Board of Trinity College Dublin. 2009. p. 715. Archived from the original on 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
  3. "Death of Sir Cusack Roney". The Times. The Times Digital Archive. 2 October 1868. p. 8.
  4. 1861 England Census
  5. "Baptism of PATR CUSACK ROONEY of N/R on N/R February 1809". churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie. Irish Genealogy. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  6. "Sir Cusack Patrick Roney", The Register, and Magazine of Biography, &c., January 1869, pp. 206–207.
  7. Roney, Sir Cusack P., A. M. Ross, S. P. Bidder. (1855) Reports of Sir Cusack P. Roney; Mr. A. M. Ross; Mr. S. P. Bidder; to the London Board of Directors. London: John Thomas Norris & the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. p. 23.
  8. "Courts of Chancery: Michaelmas 1863 to Michaelmas 1864", The Law Journal Reports for the Year 1864, Vol. 33, pp. 731–736.
  9. Roney, Sir Cusack Patrick. (1868) Rambles on Railways.. London: Effingham Wilson. Preface.
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