1938 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries

Note: This is a sub-section of 1938 Institution of Mechanical Engineers

The 125 Obituaries in the 1938 Proceedings

Volume 138 (37 Obituaries)

Volume 139 (20 Obituaries)

Volume 140 (68 Obituaries)

This file requires dividing up and the parts placed on the relevant page and then linked out

Major FRANK MOORE WARDLE, R.I.A.S.C., was a technical inspector of mechanical transport in the R.I.A.S.C., at Quetta. His duties included the investigation of defects due to design of vehicles and equipment and he was able to effect improvements by a number of modifications which he introduced. He was born in Paris in 1893 and was educated at Windermere College. In 1910 he entered the Civil Service, but in 1914 he joined the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and went to France on active service in 1915. In 1916 he transferred to the Indian Army and was posted to the 7th D.C.O. Rajputs with whom he went to the Aden Field Force. In 1921 they left for India. He left the 7th D.C.O. Rajputs in 1923 and was transferred to the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. In 1923 he was made station supply officer at Rawalpindi. Three years later he became executive commissariat officer at Port Blair, returning to England in 1928. He then took a course of training in the Mechanical Transport School at the R.A.S.C. Training College, Aldershot, and afterwards a civil works course with Messrs. Guy Motors, Ltd., Wolverhampton. Subsequently he returned to India and was promoted to the rank of major, which he held for the rest of his life. His appointment at Quetta dated from 1930. Major Wardle, who was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1936, died suddenly in Quetta, India, on 12th November 1938.

GEORGE FREDERICK WEBB, whose untimely death occurred on 12th October 1938, in his thirty-fifth year, was born in Dublin and educated in Birmingham. He served his apprenticeship with Birmingham Corporation Electricity Supply Department, and afterwards gained further experience, on the mechanical side, in the workshops. In 1928 he went to South Africa as a switchboard operator to the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company, Ltd., and a year later was made assistant district engineer, in charge of a distribution station together with the substations and interconnecting network. He was made engineer in charge of the company's Vlakfontein station in 1933. Eighteen months later he became assistant resident engineer at Messina Copper Mine, but left upon his appointment as mechanical engineer to the Irrigation Department at Riet River Irrigation Works, Orange Free State. He was responsible for the installation of a large amount of plant at the works, where he instituted the statistical systems adopted by the undertaking. In 1936 he was appointed engineering inspector of factories, in the Department of Labour and Social Welfare, at Port Elizabeth. A year later he joined the Firestone Tyre Company, Ltd., at Port Elizabeth, but was forced by ill health to return to England in March 1938. Subsequently he went to Portugal for a short period as assistant engineer for Messrs. Mason and Berry, of Cannon Street, London, at the Mina de San Domingos. Mr. Webb was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1937 and was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

WILLIAM WOOD was for over twenty years a director of Messrs. John Ruscoe and Company, Ltd., Albion Works, Hyde, Cheshire. He was born at Dukinfield in 1881 and served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Scott and Hodgson, Ltd., engineers, of Guide Bridge, Manchester, from 1896 to 1902. After gaining further practical experience with various engineering firms in Lancashire, he joined the mechanical and maintenance department at Blackburn electricity station. From 1907 to 1910 he passed through all departments of the National Gas and Oil Engine Company, Ltd., at Ashton under Lyne, and in the latter year he joined Messrs. Ruscoe as a foreman. He was appointed manager in 1912 and a director in 1919, retaining for the rest of his career the position of general manager. He devised improvements in automatic stokers for Lancashire boilers and a rope drive with special means for aligning the pulleys. In 1925 Mr. Wood was elected an Associate Member of the Institution. His death occurred on 18th April 1938.

ARTHUR JAMES HERVEY WYATT had considerable experience in the production of sighting devices for heavy guns. He was born in 1861 and received his education at Bedford Grammar School. He received his training from three firms, namely, Messrs. J. and F. Howard, of Bedford, Messrs. J. Simpson and Company, hydraulic engineers, of Grosvenor Road, London, and Messrs. Latimer Clark, Muirhead and Company, electric lighting engineers, of Westminster. In 1887 he joined the Morris Aiming Tube and Ammunition Company, Ltd., as technical assistant. Subsequently he was made assistant manager and in 1893 he became chief engineer to the company. He personally assisted Mr. Morris, helping him in all his inventions, particularly in the later stages of the designs. In 1900 he planned the layout of the company's works for the production of brass cartridges, at Dagenham, and superintended their erection, arranging for a new system of electric drive throughout. Mr. Wyatt remained with the company for more than twenty years, and filed many patents of his own in connexion with sighting devices. During the War he joined the Ministry of Munitions, and became assistant inspector for the East Midlands Area, with headquarters at Bedford. In 1918 he retired, but continued to live in Bedford, where he died on 9th July 1938 at the age of 76. He was keenly interested in mathematics, particularly from the historical aspect, and in the making of simple calculating machines. He was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1906.

Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

1938 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries

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