David Proudfoot (engineer) explained

David Proudfoot (1838 – 20 March 1891) was a New Zealand engineering contractor and company director in Dunedin. He was born in Musselburgh,^[1] or Gilmerton, Midlothian, Scotland, in about 1838 or 1841.^[2]

He was a Dunedin landowner and contractor and was one of the promoters of the Dunedin Peninsula and Ocean Beach Railway. He owned the horse-drawn trams serving the suburbs of Dunedin and had a "virtual monopoly", until he sold them to the Dunedin City and Suburban Tramway Co. in 1883 for £55,000.^[3] He was the brother-in-law of newspaper proprietor Sir George Fenwick, owing to Fenwick's marriage to Proudfoot's sister Jane.

In 1883, he left Dunedin and died in Sydney on 20 March 1891, while undergoing surgery. Reports of his age at death varied between 49^[4] and 61.^[5] A cousin said he was 50.^[6] His Waverley Cemetery burial record and an inscription on his coffin said he was 49.^[7]

Notes and References

1. Web site: 21 March 1891. DEATH OF MR DAVID PROUDFOOT. EVENING STAR. live. 17 September 2021. paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. https://web.archive.org/web/20210917014852/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18910321.2.21 . 17 September 2021 .
2. Web site: Waverley Cemeteries. 16 September 2021. en-CA.
3. Dunedin’s Matchbox Railway: The Dunedin, Peninsula and Ocean Beach Railway Company and Other Suburban Transport Ventures by J. A. Dangerfield p11 (1986, New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society. Wellington)
4. News: 21 March 1891. Family Notices. 4. Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 16 September 2021.
5. News: 21 March 1891. DEATH OF MR. DAVID PROUDFOOT.. 6. Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930). 16 September 2021.
6. News: 23 March 1891. Death of Mr. Proudfoot.. 5. Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 16 September 2021.
7. News: 23 March 1891. The Funeral.. 5. Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954). 16 September 2021.