Reuben Marchant Sayers
Reuben Marchant Sayers ( -1917) of Clark, Forde and Taylor
1918 Obituary [1]
REUBEN MARCHANT SAYERS died on Christmas-day, 1917, from typhoid fever.
He was educated at St. Paul's School, and was trained in electrical and engineering work at the City and Guilds Institute, South Kensington, of which he was a prominent student.
In 1897 he joined the firm of Messrs. Clarke, Forde and Taylor as an assistant engineer, and for 20 years was associated in the important works which they have undertaken.
It has been the writer's privilege to have known Mr. Sayers intimately for all those years, and it is not speaking too highly of him to say that his ability and character earned everyone's esteem, and the many letters received are eloquent testimony to the regard felt for him as an engineer and as a man who endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact in the course of his career.
His first work on submarine cables was in connection with the laying of the Bermuda-Turk's Island-Jamaica cable in 1898, and in the 19 years following he led a busy life, acting as Chief Assistant and afterwards (in 1910) when he became a partner in the firm, on many cable-laying expeditions; amongst these may be mentioned the Pacific cable and the laying of the following Commercial Companies' cables: Fayal (Azores) and Canso (Nova Scotia), Weston-super-Mare and Waterville (Ireland), New York and Havana, diversion of Atlantic Cable lo St. John's, N.F., extension of St. John's-Canso cable to New York, and several successful deep-sea repairing expeditions.
He possessed abilities in such a marked degree and was so earnest in all he undertook that he will leave his mark on the calling he had chosen and for which he was especially fitted by sound knowledge, ability, and charm of manner He contributed a number of papers on electrical subjects to the technical journals, and quite recently attacked the difficult problem of computing the depreciation of submarine cables, his death depriving the industry of an important paper on this subject. His services to the various cable companies for whom he has acted have been recognized in the fullest and most sympathetic way. He was not a man who courted publicity, but the amount of "spade work "that he did for his firm and their clients is known to the writer, who cannot speak too highly of one whose loss is deeply deplored by all.
He joined the Institution as a Student in 1896, was elected an Associate in 1898, and was transferred to the class of Members in 1911.