Thomas Raikes Thompson
Sir Thomas Raikes Thompson (1852-1904)
1897 Sir Thomas Thompson was a registered elector of the City of London; abode: South Weald, Essex
1899 Sir Thomas Raikes Thompson, of South Weald[1]
1900 Director of British Thomson-Houston
1905 Obituary [2]
SIR THOMAS RAIKES THOMPSON, Bart., died on the 4th September, 1904, at his country seat, Worth Hall, Crawley, Sussex, at the age of fifty-two, after a strenuous career, of which more than 20 years were passed in the tropics.
Born in 1852, the subject of this notice came of an old naval family, his grandfather having been one of Nelson’s captains at the Nile and at Copenhagen.
After obtaining his practical experience on the construction of the Vienna waterworks as an assistant to Mr. Gabrielli, the contractor, Sir Thomas went out to Bombay in 1875, where he secured the contract for the new outlet-works at Vehar Lake for the Bombay water-supply. In carrying out this contract, Sir Thomas experienced many difficulties, due to the scarcity of labour and other causes, all of which wore successfully surmounted ; as were similar difficulties, accentuated by the absolute dearth of building-stone in the country traversed, met with in a subsequent contract, the construction of a railway from Goa to Dharwar in the Southern Mahratta district of India.
Besides these works, he also carried out drainage-works for Bombay, and, in 1895, he constructed the Bhopal Railway. His last important contract in India was the Merewether Graving Dock for the Bombay Port Trust, of which G. E. Ormiston and G. R. Lynn were the engineers.
This work having been successfully completed, Sir Thomas returned to England to look after the welfare of his children and his family affairs. Shortly after his return, he joined the firm of Arbuthnot, Ewart and Co, but after a short time his health began to fail.
In April, 1904, he was attacked by paralysis, to which he succumbed in the following September. Sir Thomas married in 1880 Alice Maud Lovett, daughter of Mr. William Lochiel Cameron, who survives him.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 1st April, 1879.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1899 Kelly's Directory
- ↑ 1905 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries