John George Barwick Sams
John George Barwick Sams (c1880-1947)
1949 Obituary [1]
"Eng. Lt.-Cdr. JOHN GEORGE BARWICK SAMS, R.N., ret., whose death in his sixty-seventh year occurred on 18th December 1947, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1924.
He was educated at the Crystal Palace School of engineering and served his time at the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway from 1897 to 1902. He then went to sea in ships of Messrs. Alfred Holt and Company, Ltd., rising from fifth to third engineer and obtaining his Second-Class Board of Trade Certificate. During this period he completed his education at Manchester University.
In 1907 he joined the staff of the Great Eastern Railway as locomotive inspector and five years later became assistant to the Running Superintendent. In the second year of the 1914-18 war he obtained a commission as engineer-lieutenant in the Royal Navy and after serving in the fleet repair ship, HMS Cyclops, was posted to HMS Hannibal as senior engineer. Subsequently he held the same position at the R.N. base, Alexandria. On his demobilization in 1919 with the rank of engineer-commander he filled a variety of posts, including that of divisional assistant superintendent of operation, Great Eastern Railway. He also acted as consulting engineer to various industrial concerns.
From 1925 to 1928 he was in the service of the Jamaica Government Railways. On his return to England from Kenya, where he had been locomotive, carriage, and wagon superintendent of the Uganda Railway, he lived in retirement for some years until 1942 when he became attached to the Ministry of Supply as assistant inspector of factories (grade II), with headquarters at Nottingham."