George Willoughby Hemans (27 August 1814 – 29 December 1885) was an Irish architect and engineer who designed several major railway schemes in Ireland and the UK during the mid 19th century.
[1][2] Hemans studied for three years at a French military college (the Abbaye de Sorèze [fr]) in Sorèze, showing academic abilities in languages, science and drawing.
He spent his early career with the Ordnance Survey as a pupil of London-based engineer Sir John Macneill, who later appointed him as resident engineer for the Dublin end of the railway to Drogheda, where he supervised the first iron lattice bridges in Ireland.
In 1845, after his next commission, to take charge of a railway line between Dublin and Cork, he was appointed chief engineer by the directors of the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland to prepare plans for a line to Mullingar and Longford.
[2] In 1854, Hemans moved to London, where his railway engineering works included the Vale of Clwyd, the East Grinstead and Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells, and the Tewkesbury and Malvern lines.