Matthew McMillan Jack
Matthew McMillan Jack ( -1949)
1951 Obituary [1]
"MATTHEW MCMILLAN JACK, who had an extensive engineering experience in Malaya, received his technical education at the Paisley Technical College. After serving his apprenticeship with Messrs. Lobnitz and Company, Ltd., Renfrew, and Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox, Ltd., he was, between 1907 and 1914, at sea as marine engineer and two years later was granted a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve with the rank of engineer sub-lieutenant. He was demobilized in 1920, having in the meantime obtained his first-class Board of Trade certificate. In the following year he took up an appointment in India as assistant superintendent of machinery for the Karachi Port Trust and subsequently was in charge of harbour construction. He rejoined Messrs. Lobnitz in 1924 as a draughtsman, but after two years' service he became manager of the Malay Consolidated Tin Dredging Co. In 1930 he accepted a similar position with the Kamrah Tin Dredging Company, Ltd., and a few years later became general manager of that company and of Pattani Tin, Ltd. In addition, his services as consulting engineer were retained by another mining company and by the Malayan and General Trust, Ltd.
In 1939, he joined the staff of Austral Malay Tin Dredging Co as consulting engineer, a position he held until he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner in 1942 by the Japanese at Singapore. On his release Mr. Jack went to Australia and started an engineering business in Sydney, where his death occurred on 16th November 1949. He had been an Associate Member of the Institution since 1938."