Sir Francis Joseph Edward Spring KCIE FIMechE (20 January 1849 – 25 August 1933) was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer and member of the Imperial Legislative Council[1] who played a pioneering role in development of the Indian Railways.

Spring was born in Baltimore, County Cork, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 20 January 1849[2] to Rev.

[3][4] Upon graduating from Trinity College Dublin Spring entered the Indian Imperial Civil Service's engineering section in 1870.

[6] Upon leaving the civil service in 1904, Spring was appointed Chairman of the Madras Port Trust and served in that position until 1919.

[3] In this role, Spring redesigned and modernised the harbour at Madras, greatly increasing its capacity and improving the port's defences against cyclone damage.

Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan worked as a Grade III Class IV clerk from 1912 to 1914 at the Madras Port Trust under Spring's chairmanship.

Spring was portrayed by Stephen Fry in the 2015 British biographical film The Man Who Knew Infinity, which recounts the story of Ramanujan's adult life and his career at Cambridge University.