William Henry Coryton Kempe
William Henry Coryton Kempe (1874-1900)
1900 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM HENRY CORYTON KEMPE, son of Dr. Kempe, of New Shoreham, Sussex, was born on the 18th March, 1874.
He received his preliminary training as an apprentice in the locomotive works of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and was subsequently engaged for two years with Mr. C. O. Blaber, of Brighton, during which time he was occupied in surveying and levelling, and acted as Resident Engineer to the Steep Grade Railway at the Dyke, Brighton.
He next took charge for five months of a new outfall drain and sluice at Boston, in Lincolnshire, in connection with the Kirton Outfall Embankment, under Mr. Herbert Clarke. He was a good leveller and surveyor, thoroughly understanding the use of instruments, and the setting out and measurement of earthworks, as well as the preparation of plans and estimates, being an accurate draughtsman, quick at calculations, with an excellent knowledge of engineering mathematics.
In the year 1895 he obtained a Whitworth Exhibition of the Science and Art Department at Kensington.
In February, 1898, Mr. Kempe was selected by Mr. William Shelford as an Assistant Engineer for the projected railway between Secondi and Tarkwa in the Gold Coast Colony, and left England to take up his duties in that month. During his first term of service his work was carried out in an energetic, conscientious and intelligent manner, and after his leave of absence he returned to the Colony with promotion, serving a second period of eight months with equal credit to himself and satisfaction to the Chief Resident Engineer, being placed during this period as District Engineer in charge of a section of the line under construction.
At the expiration of his second period of leave he returned to the Colony with still further promotion, but contracted blackwater fever, to which he unfortunately succumbed on the 17th July, 1900. A promising career has thus been cut short, and the profession has lost an intelligent, proficient and hard-working member.
Mr. Kempe was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 3rd April, 1900.