Cusack Patrick Roney

Sir
Cusack Patrick Roney
Lithograph by W. Underwood after a drawing by Frederick Gush[1]
Born c. 1810
Ireland
Died 30 September 1868 (aged 57–58)
London, England
Residence London
Nationality Irish
Alma mater University College, Dublin
Occupation Writer, company secretary, director
Board member of Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada

Sir Cusack Patrick Roney (c. 1810 – 30 September 1868) was a private secretary in the British Civil Service, 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.

Early life and family

Cusack Roney was born in Ireland around 1810,[2] the son of Cusack Roney who was twice president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He was educated in Paris and at Trinity College Dublin, from where he received his BA in 1829. He qualified as a surgeon with the RCSI but did not pursue a medical career.[3]

He married Elizabeth Anne Whitcombe in 1807. She died in 1861. They had a son, Cusack Willes Roney.[3]

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.[3]

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,[3] 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".[4]

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.[3]

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.[5]

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[6] but it never was and he died on 30 September 1868 at Cleveland Square, in the Bayswater district of London.[3]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Sir Cusack Patrick Roney, National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Cusack Patrick Roney England and Wales Census, 1861. Family Search. Retrieved 31 July 2018. (subscription required)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Sir Cusack Patrick Roney", The Register, and Magazine of Biography, &c., January 1869, pp. 206–207.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ "Courts of Chancery: Michaelmas 1863 to Michaelmas 1864", The Law Journal Reports for the Year 1864, Vol. 33, pp. 731–736.
  6. ↑ Roney, Sir Cusack Patrick. (1868) Rambles on Railways.. London: Effingham Wilson. Preface.
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