William Ernest Maxwell Palliser
William Ernest Maxwell Palliser (1895-1948)
1949 Obituary [1]
"WILLIAM ERNEST MAXWELL PALLISER, who was born in 1895, spent the whole of his professional career in South Africa. After a brief training as fitter and turner, partly in South Africa, and partly with Messrs. D. Napier and Son, of Acton, he joined the Royal Air Force and served as a mechanic in France from 1916 to 1919. He then returned to South Africa where he held various short appointments, including that of mechanical draughtsman in the Town Engineer's Department at Johannes burg. After acting as engineering assistant to the Town Engineer for four years, with responsibility to the latter for mechanical work in the municipal area, he joined the staff of Messrs. Dowson and Dobson, engineers and contractors, Johannesburg, as head of the mechanical department and began, in 1928, a connection which lasted until his death, which occurred on 8th April 1948.
In 1933 he was appointed a director and given charge of all contracting and erection, with control of outside labour. Mr. Palliser was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1926 and transferred to Membership in 1936."