John Frederick Ivor Thomas
John Frederick Ivor Thomas (c1871-1940)
1940 Obituary [1]
JOHN FREDERICK IVOR THOMAS, O.B.E., was vice-chairman and managing director of British Jeffrey-Diamond, Ltd., of Wakefield, from 1931 until his death in his sixty-ninth year on 25th May 1940.
After serving his apprenticeship from 1890 to 1893 with Messrs. Wigham, Richardson and Company, marine engineers, of Walker-on-Tyne, he went to sea as fourth engineer on S.S. Holkar for a short time. He joined [Kennedy and Jenkin|Messrs. Kennedy and Jenkin]], consulting engineers, in October 1893 and remained with the firm until September 1902, during which period he acted as resident engineer on the construction of the Battersea Borough Council electric lighting works, involving a capital expenditure of over £110,000, and was also in charge of the work in connection with the Greenwich generating station, then in course of construction, for the L.C.C. tramways.
In 1902 he took up an appointment in the Westminster offices of Messrs. Mordey and Dawbarn, consulting engineers to Johannesburg municipality, and later went to South Africa, where he assisted in the preparation of a scheme for electric lighting and tramways for Johannesburg and Pretoria. In 1904 he again went to Johannesburg, as resident engineer on the construction of the whole of the plant.
During the war of 1914-18 he carried out important work for the British Government in America, for which he was awarded the O.B.E. Mr. Thomas, who was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1900, and was transferred to Membership in 1904, was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.