Charles Dearne Pearson
Charles Dearne Pearson (c1880-1950)
1951 Obituary [1]
"CHARLES DEARNE PEARSON, whose death occurred on 9th July 1950, in his seventieth year, was associated with water supply engineering during almost the whole of his career. He was educated at Clifton College and at Bristol University College, where he took a course in civil engineering. After serving his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Taylor and Sons, from 1899 to 1901, he was appointed resident engineer for that firm and was engaged on the construction and bringing into service of new storage reservoirs at Port Talbot and Chatham. In 1904 he went out to China to join the staff of the Shanghai Waterworks Company, Ltd., and after holding the position of assistant engineer for four years was promoted to be senior assistant engineer. He was made deputy engineer-in-chief in 1921 and became engineer-in-chief and manager four years later. In this capacity he was responsible for the daily supply of some thirty to forty million gallons of water to a city with a population of 3,500,000, and for the installation and maintenance of plant. He relinquished office in 1938 and returned to Britain, but continued to give his services as consulting engineer to the company.
He became attached to the Admiralty during the 1939-45 war. Mr. Pearson had been a Member of the Institution since 1927 and was a past-president of the Engineering Society of China. He had served for twenty years as a volunteer in Shanghai, being in command of a unit of engineers and on the staff."