Alfred Ernest Le Rossignol
Alfred Ernest Le Rossignol (1869-1951)
1951 Obituary.[1]
Colonel Alfred Ernest Le Rossignol, C.B., T.D., who died at Farnham, Surrey, on the 21st March, 1951, was born in London in 1869 and was educated privately and at Marlborough. He received his technical training at the Technische Hochschule, Hanover, under Prof. Kohlrausch, and at Finsbury Technical College. He was subsequently apprenticed to Siemens Bros. and Co., and was engaged with them on the installation of tramways in Guernsey and on the design and erection of plant for the Waterloo and City Railway. In 1897 he was appointed Electrical Engineer of the Glasgow Corporation Tramways and afterwards occupied a similar position with the Newcastle-on-Tyne Corporation Tramways. Thereafter he practised for a short time in London as consulting engineer.
Le Rossignol will, however, be best known to members of The Institution for his connection with the Corps of London Electrical Engineers, in which he served as an officer from the time of its formation under both John Hopkinson and Col. Crompton. He succeeded H. M. Leaf in command of the unit (which had by then become part of the Territorial Force) shortly before the outbreak of the 1914-18 War and held this position throughout the period of hostilities. The original duty of the unit was the manning of coast defence searchlights, but early in 1915 the anti-aircraft defences, both at home and overseas, were added. Considerable recruitment both of officers and men followed; and Le Rossignol became responsible not only for the related administrative work, but for the preliminary training of a large personnel. He also played a leading part in the modification and improvement of the equipment used; and was instrumental in forming a small research department for this purpose. After the war, this department became the Searchlight Experimental Establishment, Royal Engineers, with Le Rossignol as Superintendent, a position he held until 1923. He retired in 1926.
Le Rossignol was appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1917 and was promoted to the rank of colonel a year later. He joined The Institution as an Associate in 1894 and was elected a Member in 1899. He served on the Committee of the Newcastle Local Section from 1903 to 1905, and on that of the Hampshire Sub-Centre in 1929-30. He was also a Member of The Institution of Civil Engineers; an Honorary Member of the Institution of Royal Engineers; a Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; and a member of the Council of the Junior Institution of Engineers from 1918 to 1920. He served as Vice-Chairman of the latter Institution during the two following years.