W. G. Newberry
1948 Obituary [1]
WE regret to have to record the death of Mr. W. G. Newberry , a senior member of the staff of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Association, which occurred at his home in Courtlands Avenue, Lee, S.E.12, on September 4th.
William George Newberry was born at Kimberley, South Africa, in 1881, and was educated at the Grammar School, Huntingdon, and at New College, Eastbourne. He served his apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with E. R. and F. Turner , Ltd. , of Ipswich, and in 1903 he went to Johnson and Phillips, Ltd. , at Charlton, where he was employed in the drawing office and subsequently on switch gear design. In 1910 he joined Ferranti , Ltd., as a member of the staff of the estimating department . Mr. Newberry was appointed chief estimator in 1912 and shortly after was transferred to the sales department. He moved to the London office of Ferranti, Ltd ., in 1913, and was for a number of years responsible for the control of the publicity department.
At the invitation of the late Mr. D. N. Dunlop, Mr. Newberry joined the staff of the B.E.A.M.A. in 1927 as secretary to the transformer section. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to the commercial side as the responsible officer for switchgear and for commercial instruments, a position which he occupied up t o the time of his death. When, in the years immediately preceding the war, the owners of the several short-circuit testing stations in Great Britain decided to establish an association for the co-ordination of short-circuit testing and certification of switchgear and other apparatus, the work of organisation devolved up on Mr. Newberry. The Association of Short-Circuit Testing Authorities (A.S.T.A.) was incorporated in 1938, and he became the first secretary to the A.S.T.A. Management Committee.
Mr. Newberry was elected an associate member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1916 and a member in 1924.