Robert Stafford McLeod
Robert Stafford McLeod (1874-1935)
1935 Obituary.[1]
ROBERT STAFFORD McLEOD died on the 22nd September, 1935, at his home in Bromley, Kent, where he had been living in retirement since 1927. After a technical course at Leicester, he served 2 years of his apprenticeship with Messrs. Gimson of Leicester and then joined the electrical department of Messrs. Mather and Platt, with whom he served the remainder of his apprenticeship. Whilst with that firm he was associated with Mr. A. P. Wood, and when the Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Co. commenced operations in 1900 with Mr. Wood as general manager, Mr. McLeod became chief engineer to the new company and retained that office for the rest of his working life. For 10 years previous to his retirement he was also a director of the company. In 1900 the enclosed type of electric motor and multipolar generators were new developments. Mr. McLeod's technical ability was shown by the success of the dynamoelectric machinery he designed for the Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Co. The Turnbull-McLeod automatic reversible booster, the Lancashire planer gear, and the Maxtorq motor were developed by him, or under his supervision, and he also did a good deal of successful work in the development of the self starting synchronous motor. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1904 and a Member in 1913. He served on the B.E.A.M.A. Standards Committee until 1927, and was a member of the Manchester section of the Anti-Submarine Committee during the War.
He was a born engineer, with a strain of the artist, free from academic bonds, and always with an original approach to the problems of his time. His unassuming manner, his kindly spirit, and his humorous attitude to life in general, will long be remembered by his old colleagues and friends.