Samuel Derwen Jones
Samuel Derwen Jones ( -1941)
1941 Obituary [1]
SAMUEL DERWEN JONES, whose death occurred at Ilkley on the 16th February, 1941, was, previous to his retirement in 1931, Borough Electrical Engineer at Batley.
A native of Manchester, in which city he spent his boyhood and received his education, his career in the field of electrical engineering was first established when he took up an appointment as a demonstrator at the Manchester Technical School. Yearning to enter the more practical side of electrical engineering, he later accepted a position as shift engineer with the City of Salford Electricity Department, with whom he stayed for some time before he was engaged as an assistant engineer with the Bristol Tramways Co.
From Bristol he became Chief Assistant Electrical Engineer at Doncaster, and during his stay there had much to do with the inauguration of the tramway system and extension of the generating plant.
In 1902, when the Batley Corporation commenced to operate the powers entrusted to them under a Provisional Order, he was appointed Clerk of Works until, in the following year, he took over control of the undertaking as Borough Electrical Engineer. As many central station engineers know, the path to follow in the early days of electricity supply was not always easy. The industry was in its infancy and those who were held responsible for its direction and development had little or no experience to guide them. Mr. Jones, however, survived those early exacting and strenuous days, and the successful operation of the undertaking over which he had control for nearly 30 years testified to the initiative and enterprise he displayed during the whole of that period.
He joined The Institution as an Associate Member in 1900 and was elected a Member in 1925. For a number of years he served on the Committee of the North Midland Centre and was Chairman of that Centre in 1923. He also served on the Yorkshire Electricity Supply Linking-up Committee and the West Riding (Aire and Calder) Electricity District Conference of Local Authorities, set up to consider problems which were later dealt with under the Electricity Supply Act of 1926.
Holding strong religious views, a keen student of nature and a great reader, he played a conspicuous part in the social and religious life of the town in which for so many years he had made his home. A kind friend and a good master, the memory of him will long remain green in the minds of those whose privilege it was to know and work with him.