George Chamier ( 1842 - 1915)

Chamier was an engineer, surveyor and novelist. After an education at English schools, followed by scientific training at the polytechnic school in Dresden, Saxony, in 1859–60, George Chamier emigrated to New Zealand in 1860, arriving at Lyttelton on the Chapman on 12 September. He subsequently worked as a road engineer, borough engineer and surveyor for local road boards, and finally as an assistant in the chief surveyor’s department of the Canterbury provincial government from 1866 to 1868. During these years he lived at Saltwater Creek on the Ashley River, and possibly at Leithfield.

In 1869 Chamier left New Zealand for Tasmania, where he became articled to a civil engineer. In 1873 he moved to Victoria and served until 1876 as assistant engineer in the Water Supply Department. He steadily climbed the professional ladder, being admitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1879. He worked as an engineer to railway contractors in Victoria and from 1877 to 1879 as an engineer and railway manager in South Australia. On 7 September 1878, at Adelaide, he married Emily Searight (née Gardner), a widow; they were to have two sons and a daughter. By 1884 George Chamier was working in private practice as a consulting engineer in Adelaide, where he was to spend the rest of his life.

George Chamier died at sea on 25 April 1915 while on a voyage to visit his daughter in China.