Herbert Jekyll
Herbert Jekyll (1846-1932)
1932 Obituary[1]
"Colonel Sir Herbert Jekyll, whose death, we regret to record, occurred at Godaiming on Thursday, September 29, at the age of 85, had had a distinguished career, both as a soldier and as a civil administrator, in the course of which he came into contact with engineers and engineering in more than one way.
Colonel Jekyll was born in London on November 22, 1846, and passing through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was gazetted a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers just twenty years later. After serving in the Ashanti War, he was seconded from the Army and held a number of posts under the Colonial Office, both in this country and elsewhere. In 1887, he was appointed secretary to the Royal Commission on the Melbourne Centenary Exhibition, and subsequently returned for a tour of duty to the Army, in which by this time he had reached the rank of colonel. In 1900, however, he was appointed secretary of the Royal Commission for the Paris Exhibition, and when it closed, received the post of Assistant Secretary to the Railway Department of the Board of Trade. This position he occupied until his retirement in 1911, though he retained his connection with transport for some years by becoming a director of the London General Omnibus Company.
Colonel Jekyll was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George for his work at the Paris Exhibition. Though not actually one of those who met to found the Society of Telegraph Engineers (now the Institution of Electrical Engineers), he was one of its first members and the remaining survivor of those who appeared on the original roll."