Harold James Northcott
Harold James Northcott (1887-1947)
1949 Obituary [1]
"HAROLD JAMES NORTHCOTT, O.B.E., who was born in 1887, was educated at Clifton College and took a four years' mechanical engineering course at University College, London. His apprenticeship was served at various sugar refineries in France and Belgium, and at the locomotive and boiler works of the Ateliers de Construction de Dousee, at Mons, between the years 1909 and 1912.
After gaining further experience at Lille in shop supervision and the erection and testing of boilers under the direction of M. Paul Kestner, the inventor of the boiler of that name, he was placed in charge of the Kestner Evaporation and Engineering Company's boiler department in Westminster. In 1914 he was granted a commission in the R.A.S.C. and saw service in France as workshop officer. Subsequently he was 0.C., 49th Divisional Motor Transport Company, with the rank of captain, and finally he was promoted major on the staff of the headquarter's base at Boulogne. After his demobilization in 1920 he joined Messrs. Northcott Williams and Company, general and automobile engineers, Westminster.
In 1938 he was appointed inspector of supplementary transport, Regent's Park Barracks, London, with responsibility to the War Office for the impressment of civilian vehicles in Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the event of mobilization, on the first day of which, in 1939, he rejoined the Army and served continuously until he was invalided out early in 1945. In all Mr. Northcott had eleven years' active service to his credit, during which he was mentioned in despatches in both wars and received the award of the O.B.E. His death occurred on 30th March 1947. He had been an Associate Member of the Institution since 1916."