Herbert Cecil Whitehead (1884-1944)
1944 Obituary [1]
HERBERT CECIL WHITEHEAD was born at Burnley, Lancs., on the 1st February, 1884, and died at Birmingham on the 3rd May, 1944.
He was educated at Carlton Road Grammar School, Burnley, and received his scientific training at Manchester Technical School and as an assistant under Mr. J. Corbett, Borough Engineer of Salford, and under Mr. J. D. Watson, Past-President Inst. C.E., on the engineering staff of the Birmingham, Tame and Rea District Drainage Board.
In 1907 he was appointed Deputy Borough Engineer to the Corporation of Southend-on-Sea, and retained that office until 1920, when he returned to Birmingham as Chief Assistant Engineer to the Drainage Board.
In 1924 he succeeded Mr. Watson as Chief Engineer, which position he occupied until his death. He was a well-known authority on matters of sewage purification and had been a very active and useful member of the Water Pollution Research Board and of the Committee of that Board appointed to investigate the effect of the discharge of crude sewage into the estuary of the Mersey, since their inception in 1927 and 1932 respectively.
Quite recently he had accepted an invitation from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to become Chairman of the Water Pollution Research Board in succession to Sir Robert Robertson. He was made a C.B.E. in January 1944....[more]