Bernard Oglie Anson
Bernard Oglie Anson (1878-1946)
Assistant Engineer-in-Chief, G.P.O., Alder House, E.C.
Pioneer in automatic telephone switching, and interested specially in the vocational training of engineering employees.
1946 Obituary [1]
BERNARD OGLIE ANSON, O.B.E., who died on the 7th August, 1946, was born at Hessle in 1878. Entering the service of the Post Office at Hull, as a sorting clerk and telegraphist, in 1896, he reached the position of Assistant and Deputy Engineer-in-Chief before his retirement in 1938. From 1903 to 1908 he held a clerical position in the Engineering Department, and, after serving as a maintenance engineer in Leeds and London, was transferred in 1911 to the Engineer-in-Chief's office, where he was responsible for the whole of the telephone exchange maintenance and also, to a considerable extent, for the introduction of automatic telephony. He was made an Executive Engineer in 1920, Assistant Staff Engineer in 1925, Staff Engineer in 1931, and Assistant Engineer-in-Chief in 1934. He acted as chairman of numerous committees, both technical and administrative, including the Head Office and the provincial Whitley Committees; and he was the principal official concerned in the negotiation of various agreements for the purchase of telephone exchange equipment. He was a member of the Council and of the Board of Editors of The Institution of Post Office Electrical Engineers for a period of sixteen years, during the last twelve of which he was Chairman of the Board. During a long and strenuous career, he travelled widely, and, as the result of a visit to Shanghai, he was appointed telephone adviser to the Municipal Council, who adopted his report on the reorganization of the city's telephone system. A few months after retiring from the Post Office he went to the Home Office as Assistant Secretary of the Fire Brigades Division. In November, 1939, he joined the staff of Ericsson Telephones as Technical Adviser, and the following May he was appointed Factory Manager at their Beeston works.
He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1937 and an O.B.E. in 1938. While at Beeston he served as President of the Rotary Club and as Chairman of the local Nursing Association. His outstanding personality was characterized by naturalness and boyishness, and his love of fun endeared him to all his associates. He had great foresight and clarity of thought, and he quickly overcame any difficulties that lay in his path.
He joined The Institution as an Associate Member in 1921 and was elected a Member in 1922.
1946 Obituary [2]