Leon Joseph Coutanceau
Leon Joseph Coutanceau (1886-1946)
1947 Obituary [1]
"LEON JOSEPH COUTANCEAU was associated with the Manufacture, erection, and maintenance of sugar-factory machinery during the whole of his career, and was well known as a prominent technician in the primary industry of Mauritius, where he was born in 1886.
After attending the Royal College in that island, he studied civil and mechanical engineering at the City and Guilds Institute, South Kensington, obtaining the College Diploma of Associateship in 1909. On the completion of a year's practical training in the foundry and gas engine department of the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Ltd., at Manchester, he returned to Mauritius and began his professional career with the post of engineer to the St. Antoine Sugar Estate.
Subsequently, for a brief period, he assisted the chief engineer of the Government railways on new construction. From 1913 to the end of his career he was closely associated with the firm of Messrs. Tardieu and Company, Ltd., and its successor, Messrs. Forges Tardieu, Ltd., makers of sugar machinery. After occupying the position of assistant engineer for seven years, he was made engineer and managing director. On the amalgamation of his firm with Les Forges et Fonderies de Maurice, Ltd., in 1931, he continued to hold these joint appointments until his death, which occurred at Lee-on-Solent, Hants, while he was recuperating from illness, on 4th November 1946. Mr. Coutanceau had been a Member of the Institution since 1934. In addition he was an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers."