Water inspectors in the 19th century often felt an urge to higher callings.
Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, for example, spent the first 10 years of his adult life as an inspector of dykes on the River Weser in Germany, but in due course he became a meteorologist and is credited with drawing the world's first weather maps in the 1820s.
In the 1880s, another water inspector, this time in Ireland, where he was responsible in this capacity for a large part of Co Cavan, displayed the early talent he was later to exploit so wonderfully. He compiled a detailed specification of what his job entailed:
He finds out the holding and what it contains,
Then maps out his system in furlongs and chains,
And points out positions for "minors" and "mains"
- Such wisdom has William, Inspector of Drains.
This William, William Percy French, went on, as we know, to become a famous writer of songs and a talented painter of watercolours. His daughter Ettie tells us how he embarked upon this latter course.
"My father was thirty when he was first attracted to landscape painting. He was enjoying a life full of congenial activities and deeply in love with the girl he was going to marry, when a series of wonderful sunsets over Lough Sheelin completely bowled him over.
"He went out every evening and tried to capture in paint the colours, which were due to volcanic dust. After that he painted everywhere he went."
Percy French was 30 in 1884. The volcano in question was on Krakatoa, a small island in the Sunda Straits, between Java and Sumatra in what is now called Indonesia.
On August 28th, 1883, the Krakatoa volcano erupted and an estimated four cubic miles of debris was hurled into the atmosphere in a few frenzied hours.
The immediate impact was to reduce the surrounding area to almost total darkness for several days. Some 36,000 people perished, but for those who were not in its immediate vicinity, there were positive aspects to this spectacular event.
Tiny particles of ash from the volcano were carried in the stratosphere to heights of 30 miles or more around the entire globe, and caused the sun to appear blue and green in many parts of the tropics.
The volcanic dust also gave spectacular sunsets right around the world during the succeeding two years.
Thus it was that Krakatoa started Percy French on his subsidiary career as a celebrated watercolour painter, a pastime which he was to enjoy almost until his death in England in Liverpool, 80 years ago today, on January 24th, 1920.