Harold Edward Joscelyn Camps
Harold Edward Joscelyn Camps (1874-1951)
1952 Obituary [1]
"HAROLD EDWARD JOSCELYN CAMPS was well known as a prominent consulting marine engineer and naval architect, and was formerly the principal of Camps and Company, London, consulting engineers. He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1903 and was also a Member of the Institution of Naval Architects.
He took a leading part in the foundation, in 1919, of the Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors; he was a fellow of this Society and also president during 1925-26 and from 1940 to 1945. He was born in London in 1874 and educated at King's College School, London. His apprenticeship was served with Harland and Wolff, Ltd., Belfast, shipbuilders, from 1889 to 1894, and during this period he attended technical classes in that city and later at Newcastle upon Tyne, later gaining several diplomas at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, and honours in naval architecture.
After acting as junior draughtsman to Palmer and Company, Ltd., Jarrow, shipbuilders, for some two years, he was appointed leading technical draughtsman to Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Wallsend-on-Tyne. He was then engaged for a brief period as estimator for Sir Raylton Dixon and Company, Ltd., Middlesbrough, before setting"up, in 1900, as a consulting engineer and naval architect in London. Three years later he became senior partner in the firm of Messrs. Camps and Piercy and subsequently, on the dissolution of the partnership, established the firm of Camps and Company, continuing to act as principal until a few years before his death, which occurred on 16th January 1951. A familiar figure in the Royal Courts of Justice as an expert witness for more than twenty years, Mr. Camps also acted as adviser to various government departments and on many occasions was final arbitrator in important cases.
During the 1914-18 war he was engaged almost exclusively on the salvage of damaged vessels and was responsible for the arrangement of temporary repairs to enable them to reach a port, in addition to the work of drawing up contracts for their final repair and return to service. Mr. Camps was a member of the Worshipful Company of Loriners and a freeman of the City of London; he was also a keen and active Freemason."