inquiry cleared the company of any negligence. Private practice Snell also undertook private work as a surveyor and engineer. He formed a partnership with Frederick (German Friedrich) Ferdinand Kawerau on 1 January 1853, which prospered for a time, but was dissolved in the 1854, and later a partnership with Edward Prowse, which was dissolved in 1855, both of whom became prominent architects in Geelong. Snell was an avid reader and self educator, joining the Adelaide and Geelong Mechanics Institutes; he became a member of the Geelong Society of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors; and the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1857 (later the Royal Society of Victoria) Later life Snell returned to England in 1858 with his family on the Norfolk, to a life of retirement, having amassed the fortune that was his intention, and secured a considerable income of around £300 per annum. In retirement he undertook his own reading and invented a 'stockless' ship's anchor. In the 1870s he converted to spiritualism, gaining some notoriety in Bath. Edward Snell died on 15 March 1880 at his residence, Culver Park, Saltash, Cornwall. Artistic works While the illustrations in his diaries and engineering drawings constitute his primary artistic output, his sketches, water colours and oil paintings form a moderate compendium of works of some note. Examples Include: HMS 'St George' and 'Arethusa' on the Hamoaze near Bull Point. The "Frolic" crossing Yorke's Peninsula, 14 June 1850, watercolour. Prospect of Swindon Railway Works and Village, Wiltshire Two watercolours of the new locomotive works and railway village in Swindon 1849. Geelong and Melbourne Railway Teminus, colour lithograph Quarrill & Co. August 1854. Williamstown Hobson's Bay, 1854 lithographed R. Quarrill & Co., [Melbourne] 1854. Kangaroo Hunting Yorkes (sic) Peninsula, watercolour, 18 August 1850. Edward Snell's diary is a frank account of his time in Australia was not written for publication and has a frank, intimate and irreverent flavour. It is illustrated profusely with detailed and humorous watercolours and sketches. Snell's diary is one of three State Library of Victoria goldfields records listed in the Australian Register of the Memory of the World. References 1820 births 1880 deaths British civil engineers Australian civil engineers Engineers from Melbourne British emigrants to Australia People from Barnstaple Engineers from Devon