Item 0041 - Letter, 10 June 1873

Robert Carr-Harris was born on July 9, 1843, in London, England.

He was a civil engineer, educator, and author. He was educated in King’s College, London. In 1861, his family emigrated to Canada where he became a civil engineer in 1864. In the 1870s, he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, calculating bridge superstructure and inspecting the bridges from the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver on behalf of the Dominion government. He also worked for the Brooklyn Waterworks (1874), the Pictou Railway, and Quebec Government Railway. He was a consulting Bridge Engineer for St. George Viaduct, Grand Trunk Railway. As an expert with the most varied and extended professional experience in railroad construction, he became a Professor of Civil Engineering first at the Royal Military College, Kingston, and then at the Queen's University, Kingston (1879-1897). He was a Vice-President of the Kingston Humane Society and he published several articles and textbooks on civil engineering.

In 1875, he married Ellen Jane Fitton (1840-1890) and in 1896, he married Hannah Bertha Wright (1863–1949). He died on April 12, 1923, in Ottawa, Ontario.