Thomas Alexander Petrie
Thomas Alexander Petrie (1877-1942)
1943 Obituary [1]
THOMAS ALEXANDER PETRIE was born in 1877 and served his apprenticeship with Messrs. James Abernethy and Company, of Aberdeen, from 1895 to 1900, in whose employment he continued as draughtsman and assistant works manager for a further three years. During this period he attended classes at Robert Gordon's College for technical instruction, which he supplemented by a further course of training in engineering subjects at various London colleges, extending over a period of six years.
After holding a short appointment on the designing staff of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, London, he became draughtsman and chief designer of all kinds of artillery to the Coventry ordnance works and held this position until 1917. Two years later he was appointed manager of the Ministry of Labour's Training Centre at New Basford, Nottinghamshire.
For his service in that capacity, he was awarded the O.B.E. in 1920. After the war he joined the Ministry of Labour and was manager of the Training Centre at Nottingham and later at Derby. He resigned this position in 1923, and during the following six years was interested in various engineering projects. In 1929 he returned to the Ministry of Labour as manager of the Watford and afterwards of the Letchworth Training Centre, remaining there until his retirement, due to ill-health, in 1942. Mr. Petrie, whose death occurred in same year on 25th July, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1920.