He was born at 11 Roxburgh Street in
Edinburgh on 24 September 1849 the son of William Methven. He is thought to be named after a great uncle, Cpt Cathcart Methven of the
East India Company killed in a fall from a horse in
Calcutta in 1823. He was apprenticed as an engineer with John Sang in
Kirkcaldy from 1866 70 1871. He then worked with
Paley and Austin of
Lancaster as Clerk of Works for the reconstruction of St John's Episcopal Church in
Greenock. He then joined the London firm of
Robert Kinipple as assistant harbour engineer at Greenock in
Scotland. In 1886 he replace Kinipple as engineer-in-chief of the Greenock Harbour Trust. As a prominent
Victorian engineer, he became a member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). In February 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were William Swan,
John Gray McKendrick,
George Chrystal, and
Sir John Murray. He emigrated to
South Africa in autumn 1888, when appointed Durban's harbour engineer, his orders were to remove a sandbar obstructing shipping at the harbour entrance, forcing passengers and cargo to be moved by
lighter. Methven's plans to get rid of the bar by extending the North Pier and using the scouring action of tidal currents, brought him into conflict with a prominent lawyer, Attorney General and politician,
Harry Escombe, who wanted to rely on dredging alone. Consequently, Methven was dismissed on 11 July 1894. This led to a tremendous uproar ending in Escombe's resignation. Much later, in 1918, the South African government granted him £500 in recognition of his services with development of the harbour. His other recommendation that the Umhlatuzi Lagoon be developed as a second harbour for Natal, was also followed in the 1970s and is now known as Richards Bay. Not content to remain idle, Methven started his own successful business as consulting civil and marine engineer, architect and surveyor on 13 December 1895. He undertook to survey all harbours on the south-east and southern coastline, ranging from
Port St Johns (1897) to
Port Alfred,
Kalk Bay and
Mossel Bay (1901),
Richards Bay and
Cape Town (1902),
East London (1901 and 1910),
Lourenço Marques (1909/10) and
Beira and
Port Elizabeth (1911). Methven was also President of the Natal Institute of Architects (1905–1908) and a Fellow of the
Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA). Methven practiced as architect and was one of the founder members of the
Natal Institute of Architects. He was an enthusiastic trout fisherman and an accomplished musician. His involvement in the art world led to his being President of the
Natal Society of Artists in 1908, 1912 and 1915. He drew up specifications for the building of the organs in the Durban and Pietermaritzburg Town Halls, and edited
A Century of Progress in Natal, 1824–1924 published in Pietermaritzburg. Methven's first solo exhibition took place in
Johannesburg in 1921. His work may be seen in the
Africana Museum, Durban Art Gallery, Local History Museums, Tatham Art Gallery and the
Killie Campbell Collections. He also painted a number of landscapes of his hometown, Greenock. He died in
Pietermaritzburg in
South Africa on 30 August 1925. ==Family==