Walter James Hosgood
Walter James Hosgood (c1865-1943)
1944 Obituary [1]
WALTER JAMES HOSGOOD, whose death in his seventy-eighth year occurred at Rayne, Essex, on 10th June 1943, was for twenty years chief mechanical engineer of the Rhodesia and Mashonaland Railways. On the completion in 1887 of a four years' apprenticeship at the Cardiff depot of the Taff Vale Railway, under the late Mr. T. Hurry Riches (who was President of the Institution in 1907-8) he went to sea and served for two years as marine engineer. After a year's experience in the drawing office of Messrs. Sharp, Stewart and Company, Ltd., Glasgow, he was appointed draughtsman in the locomotive, carriage, and wagon department of the Barry Dock and Railway Company, and subsequently became assistant mechanical engineer.
He resigned this position in 1897 on his appointment as chief mechanical engineer to the Port Talbot Railways and Docks Company and two years later was given the additional appointment of resident engineer, in which capacity he was responsible for the whole of the engineering works, including extensions to railways, docks, wharves, and marine equipment. In 1904 he went to South Africa to take up the appointment of chief mechanical engineer to the Rhodesia Railways. For some years Mr. Hosgood served in the Rhodesia Defence Force, retiring after the war of 1914-18 with the rank of major.
On his return to England in 1924 he subsequently joined the firm of Sir Douglas Fox and Partners as a consulting engineer, and practiced until his retirement some six years later. Mr. Hosgood was a member of the Institution for over half a century, having been elected a Graduate in 1891 and transferred to Membership in 1897; he was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.