Stephen Mitchell Dixon (1866 - 1940)

Born 29 May 1866 in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Husband of Aline Allison Harrison — married 31 May 1894 in York, New Brunswick, Canada

Died 25 Mar 1940 at age 73 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

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Biography

Stephen Dixon is Notable.

Stephen was born May 29, 1866 at 12 Burlington Road in Dublin, Ireland. He was a son of George Dixon, a Soapbuilder, and Rebecca (Yeates) Dixon.^[1]

He was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he studied experimental science and worked as demonstrator to Dr. W.A. Trail in the Engineering School.^[2] He was also a friend and neighbour of William Henry Stanley Monck.^[3]

Dixon worked for the Portrush Electric Railway Company, which connected Portrush, Northern Ireland with the Giant's Causeway, the first in the world to be powered by hydro-electricity.^[2]

in September of 1892, he took up duties as a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of new Brunswick, with recommendation. He was the Inaugural chair of the Engineering department there under President Dr. Thomas Harrison. He married Aline Allison Harrison, Dr, Harrison's only daughter, on May 31, 1894 in Sheffield, New Brunswick.

He went on to be chair of Engineering at a number of different institutions, including Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the University of Birmingham and Imperial College London.^[3]

During WWI, he worked with the Ministry of Munitions serving with the Royal Engineers in France.^[3]

While in Birmingham, he studied wire ropes and supports for the mining industry, and was appointed to the S**afety in Mines Research Board in 1923. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and served on the British Standards Committee. He was awarded the Telford Premium of the Institution of Civil Engineers for his work on measuring the flow of the River Severn. He retired from Imperial College in 1933. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1937 New Year Honours. He retired to the South of France in the same year.^[3][4]

Dr. Dixon passed away on March 25, 1940 in Nice, shortly before the capitulation of Nice to Italy a few months later. Circumstances surrounding his death are not known. An obituary was published in The Engineer

Known Children

• Sibyl L. Dixon, born July 6, 1899 in New Brunswick

Census Records

• 1901 Census, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
• "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7B8-QY3 : 15 July 2019), Aline Dixon in household of Stephin M Dixon, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

Research Notes

Stephen may be interred at the Cimitière Communal de Sainte-Marguerite in Nice. There is a memorial there for S M Dixon 1866-1940.^[5] There may be no conclusive way of knowing whether this is Stephen Dixon however I have asked a Find-A-Grave researcher to see if they can find further information.

Sources

1. ↑ Dixon Family of Lota, Cross Avenue, Blackrock, Hosted on YouWho, a local history project
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Stephen Mitchell Dixon, AskAboutIreland. Accessed September 30, 2021
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Stephen Mitchell Dixon, WikiZero. Accessed September 30, 2021
4. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. (2021, September 14). 1937 New Year Honours. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:20, September 30, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1937_New_Year_Honours&oldid=1044183342
5. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #130846686, S M Dixon (1866-1940)

See Also

• Wikipedia contributors. (2021, January 24). Stephen Mitchell Dixon. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:21, September 30, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephen_Mitchell_Dixon&oldid=1002475155