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HACKETT,¹ Edward Augustus (1859–1945), civil engineer, was born at Castletown Park, Ballycumber, County Offaly on 1 December 1859, the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Hackett and Henrietta Clementina Fawcett. He was educated privately and entered Queen's College Galway in 1877 to study engineering. He graduated from the Royal University of Ireland in 1880 with a first class honours BE degree and in 1882 was awarded an ME degree without further examination.

Following graduation in 1880, Hackett served a pupilage in Dublin with James **Price until 1882 when he was employed as assistant to Benjamin Ferguson Flemying, planning a branch of the Great Southern & Western Railway to serve Sallins and Baltinglass. In the same year, Hackett went to South Africa to work for the Natal government as assistant resident engineer under Mark William Carr, MInstCE on the Ladysmith Extension Railway.