I was but very
recently married, I said, and how could I leave my wife to go to the
other side of the globe alone? No need to do that, said he; your wife
can accompany you; other ladies are going too. Then I gratefully
accepted the offer, and with high delight, for would I not see more of
the great world, and accomplish useful public work at the same time. Duty
and pleasure would go hand in hand. I need not hide the fact that it was
one of my then Directors, now my colleague, and always my friend, Sir
Walter Nugent, Baronet (then a Member of Parliament), who, having been
spoken to on the subject, was the first to mention my name to Mr.
Harcourt.
Soon after my retirement from the position of Manager of the Midland, my
colleagues of the Irish railway service, joined by the Managers of
certain steamship companies that were closely associated with the
railways of Ireland, entertained me to a farewell dinner. Mr. James
Cowie, Secretary and Manager of the Belfast and Northern Counties Section
of the Midland Railway of England (Edward John Cotton's old line),
presided at the banquet, which took place in Dublin on the 9th of
January, 1913.
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