George William Woolliscroft
George William Woolliscroft (1865-1948)
1949 Obituary [1]
"GEORGE WILLIAM WOOLLISCROFT, O.B.E., J.P., Wh.Sc., throughout his career was in the service of the Midland Railway, both during its independent existence and after its absorption into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
He was born in 1865 and after completing his general education at Grove House School entered the locomotive works of the London and North Western Railway at Crewe in 1882, as a premium apprentice. In 1886, while studying at Owens College, Manchester, he gained a Whitworth Scholarship, and in the same year the Ashbury Engineering Scholarship. He began his career with the Midland Railway four years later as a junior draughtsman in the locomotive department at Derby. His duties in that capacity included the preparation of schemes for the ventilation of tunnels, which entailed a visit to the Continent to acquire further information on the subject. In 1898 he was appointed assistant chief draughtsman with joint control of the drawing office and three years later was selected to accompany the late Mr. Deeley, at that time locomotive superintendent, on a tour of inspection of railways and engineering works in America. After nine years' further service in the locomotive department he joined the staff of the chief mechanical engineer and continued to serve in that department until his retirement, with the exception of the period, 1916 to 1919, when he was attached to the Ministry of Munitions in London. Mr. Woolliscroft was elected a Member of the Institution in 1904 and was the author of a paper in 1931 on "Training of an Engineer". In 1929 he served on the East Midlands Branch Committee, being Chairman of the Branch and a Member of Council in 1930. He was Mayor of Ilkeston 1925-26 and did much work as Chairman of the Education Committee. He was made a J.P. for Derbyshire in 1919 and received the O.B.E. for war work during the 1914-18 war. His death occurred on 16th June 1948."