page_title: John Frederick Adolphus McNair
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: John Frederick Adolphus McNair / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: An architectural drawing by J.F.A. McNair, the Executive Engineer and Superintendent of Convicts of the Straits Settlements. It depicts a proposed panopticon-style prison at Outram, Singapore, that was never built.
context_page_description: John Frederick Adolphus McNair CMG RA AMICE FLS FRGS was a British Indian and colonial official.
context_section_description: McNair was educated at King's College London and at the School of Mines. He was a multi-talented civil servant in the service of the Straits Settlements. He was an engineer, superintendent of convicts, manager of public works and a member of the commission for the pacification of Larut following the signing of a peace treaty, in 1874.
  McNair's childhood was filled with the study of geology. Over time he amassed a large collection of metals. He later had this transported to Madras where he was to begin his first job.
  In 1846, at the age of 17, McNair left England to take up employment with the British East India Company, (E. I. C.) at Madras, India. McNair studied and was fluent in Hindustani, a skill that would stand him in good stead.
  From Madras, McNair was transferred to Malacca (part of Straits Settlements in 1853 to be responsible for the Madras Native Artillery reporting to J. B. Westerhout, then the advisor to the government of the Straits Settlements. 
  He was then posted to Singapore, where he took up an appointment as private secretary and aide-de-camp to the Governor of Straits Settlements. In 1857, McNair was appointed Executive Engineer and Superintendent of Convicts in the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) and he was also in responsible for Public Works and the Oriental Gaol in Singapore.
caption: An 1880s architectural drawing by McNair depicting a proposed panopticon-style prison at Outram that was never built
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