John Richard Hutchinson Williamson (1859-1892) of Manchester and District Edison Electric Light Co and Manchester Edison and Swan Co.
1891 of Williamson Electrical Engineering Co, Pitt Street, Sydney, New South Wales
1893 Obituary [1]
JOHN RICHARD HUTCHINSON WILLIAMSON, son of the late Mr. John Williamson of Darlington, was born on the 6th of August, 1859, and was educated at the Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne, which represents the Faculties of Science and Engineering in the University of Durham. There he took honours in mathematics and physics, and came out first in the final examination for the Associateship in Science, with the Charles Mather Scholarship of the annual value of £40, tenable for two years.
After spending five years in the works of the Darlington Wagon and Engineering Company, he was appointed in July, 1882, Electrician to the Metropolitan Brush Electric Light Co, for which firm he installed electrical plant at the Royal Mint and carried out other important works in London. He held this post until November, 1883, after which he practised for a time as a Consulting Engineer.
In October, 1884, Mr. Williamson was appointed, out of seventy candidates, Engineer and Manager to the Manchester Edison-Swan Co, for which he successfully carried out the entire incandescent lighting of the Manchester Exhibition and a large number of installations in cotton-mills, warehouses and private mansions. To such a position did the Company attain under his management that the Board elected him Managing-Director in 1888, which office he was unfortunately compelled by ill-health to resign in the following year.
Under medical advice, Mr. Williamson left England for New South Wales in October, 1889, and by the following March had so far recovered as to be able to assume the post of Managing Director of the Williamson Electrical and Engineering Company, which had been formed by a few gentlemen who took great interest in his career. He soon obtained some important contracts in and around Sydney, amongst the works he carried out for the Company being the electric lighting of the Empire Hotel, the Garrick Theatre, the Imperial Arcade and Arcade Street in that city, and the Central Station lighting of the borough of Redfern.
The strain was, however, too great, and the lung trouble from which he had been suffering became so acute that he was obliged to relinquish work entirely.
In the autumn of 1892 he left Sydney and took up his quarters in a vineyard cottage at Allandale on Hunter River. For a time he appeared slightly better; but on the 7th of December, after his evening meal, haemorrhage set in and he passed away in sleep at noon on the following day.
Mr. Williamson was a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
He was elected an Associate Member of this Institution on the 6th of March, 1588.