Neil McKechnie Barron
Lt-Col Neil McKechnie Barron (1877-1927)
1927 Obituary [1]
Lieut.-Colonel NEIL MCKECHNIE BARRON, O.B.E., was trained as a civil engineer in Aberdeen, and from 1901 to 1914 was engaged as waterworks engineer with the Warrington, Margate, and Lincoln Corporations successively. At Lincoln he was responsible for the installation of new pumping plant consisting of two triple-expansion inverted direct-acting rotary engines, each capable of pumping 3,600,000 gallons in twenty-four hours against a head of 724 feet, together with the accompanying boiler plant. From these engines record results were obtained on trial.
In 1914 he went to India to take up an appointment as sanitary engineer, but the following year returned in order to serve as an R.E. officer with the forces in France.
In 1916 be was appointed Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer at the War Office, and in 1920 he returned to India as sanitary engineer to the Government of Central Provinces and Berar.
He moved to Calcutta two years later to represent the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company of Darlington, and at the time of his death, on 26th February 1927, was engaged on a contract for laying new pipes for the Calcutta waterworks.
Lt.-Col. Barron, who was born in Glasgow in 1877, became a Member of the Institution in 1920. He was also a Member of the institution of Civil Engineers.