Editing C. Y. O'Connor (section)

==Early life==
O'Connor was born in Gravelmount House,<ref>{{cite web |title=Navan Historical Society - O'Connor, C. Y. (Engineer) |url=http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=engineers |website=www.navanhistory.ie |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref> a small [[country house]] in [[Castletown Kilpatrick]], a parish located between [[Kells, County Meath|Kells]] and [[Ardee]] in the north of [[County Meath]] in [[Ireland]]. He was the third and youngest son and fourth child of John O'Connor, a farmer and company secretary, and his wife Mary Elizabeth, ''née'' O'Keefe.<ref name="ADB">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id=A110059b|title=O'Connor, Charles Yelverton (1843–1902)|year=1988|pages=51–54|author=Tauman, Merab Harris |volume=1|accessdate=1 November 2009}}</ref> O'Connor was home-schooled by his aunt before being educated at Waterford Endowed School (also
known as Bishop Foy's School). In 1859 he was apprenticed to [[John Chaloner Smith]] as a railway engineer.<ref>Evans, 2001 p.39</ref> At the age of 21 he emigrated to New Zealand, and on 6 September 1866 was appointed assistant engineer for [[Canterbury Province]] under [[Edward Dobson]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Davis|first1=Peter Woodley|title=A glimpse of one of the giants who built our nation Charles Yelverton O'Connor 11/1/1843…10/3/1902|url=http://www.alor.org/Heritage/Charles%20Yelverton%20O'Connor.htm|accessdate=24 April 2017|work=Heritage Quarterly Magazine|publisher=Australian League of Rights|location=Melbourne|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720190718/http://www.alor.org/Heritage/Charles%20Yelverton%20O'Connor.htm|archive-date=20 July 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Evans 2001:53</ref><ref name="DNZB O'Connor">{{DNZB|last=Pollard|first=John|id=2o1|title=O'Connor, Charles Yelverton – Biography|accessdate=21 January 2012}}</ref>

His first task was the construction of the [[Otira]] Gorge section of the road over [[Arthur's Pass (mountain pass)|Arthur's Pass]], so that the [[West Coast gold rush|gold fields]] on the [[West Coast, New Zealand|West Coast]] became easier to access.<ref name="DNZB O'Connor" /> After holding other positions, O'Connor became inspecting engineer for the mid-[[South Island]]. In 1873 he married Scottish-born Susan Laetitia Ness, and they had eight children, four girls (including Girl Guiding commissioner [[Bridget Yelverton Lee Steere]] and painter [[Kathleen O'Connor (painter)|Kathleen O'Connor]]) and four boys while in New Zealand (their fifth child, Charles Goring Yelverton O'Connor, died aged 7 months in a home accident). In 1883 O'Connor was appointed Under-Secretary of Public Works in New Zealand, and in 1890 he was appointed Marine Engineer for the [[self-governing colony|colony]].

By 1891, O'Connor had much experience in harbour and dock construction when he resigned his position in April that year to become Engineer-in-Chief of [[Western Australia]]. His wife and children relocated with him to Australia. There he was responsible for the construction of [[Fremantle Harbour]] and the [[Goldfields Water Supply Scheme]] project, which supplied water to the [[Goldfields-Esperance|Eastern Goldfields]]. He was the inaugural Engineer in Chief of the [[Public Works Department (Western Australia)|Public Works Department]].