John Pitman Hooper
John Pitman Hooper (1847-1928) of Hoopers Telegraph and India-Rubber Works
1847 Born the son of William Hooper
1928 Obituary [1]
JOHN PITMAN HOOPER, son of the late William Hooper, was born in 1847 and was educated at Brighton, Neuweid-on-the-Rhine, and Vevey, Switzerland.
He commenced his professional career at his father's telegraph and indiarubber works, then at Mitcham Common, assisting in the manufacture of Hooper's rubber core for submarine cables, which obtained the only gold medal awarded to English telegraph cables at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.
From 1865 to 1871 he was engaged upon the manufacture of the core for, among others, the Ceylon-India, Persian Gulf, Anglo-Danish, Anglo- Norwegian, Hong-Kong, and Vladivostock cables, and accompanied the expedition for laying the last-mentioned.
From 1872 to 1875 he superintended the manufacture of various telegraph cables for South and Central America.
On the death of his father in 1878 he became manager of the firm, and continued as managing director on its reconstruction, in 1894, as Hooper's Telegraph and Indiarubber Works, Ltd. In 1911 he became chairman of the company, and served in that capacity until his death on the 12th March, 1928. He was created a Chevalier of the Order of the Rose of Brazil by the late Emperor of that country.
He was one of the earliest members of the Institution, having been elected a Member in 1873.