Percy Frederick Tarbutt
Percy Frederick Tarbutt (1848-1904)
1904 Obituary [1]
PERCY FREDERICK TARBUTT, born on the 10th December, 1848, left Magdalen College, Oxford, to serve an apprenticeship to Simpson and Co, of Westminster, and to E. A. Cowper, afterwards pursuing his studies at the School of Mines.
He then obtained employment under the late Sir Charles Bright, and was engaged from 1870 to 1877 in superintending the construction of telegraph-cables and in cable-laying in the West Indies. Proceeding subsequently to Servia, he was there employed by Sir Charles in mining operations and in the design and erection of pumping, air-compressing, and boring machinery.
In 1877 he accepted service under the late Colonel Sir Francis Bolton, being occupied during that and the following year in designing mining and other machinery, and in examining and reporting on mines.
In 1878, Mr. Tarbutt founded the firm of Tarbutt and Quentin, afterwards Tarbutt, Son and Janson, mining and consulting engineers, on whose behalf he visited many countries, prospecting and reporting on mines, and superintending their working and the design and erection of their machinery. Mr. Tarbutt was one of the first to realize the value of deep-level mines, and for many years prior to his death, which took place on the 30th May, 1904, he devoted his energies to the direction of mining enterprises in all parts of the world.
Mr. Tarbutt was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 14th April, 1885, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 18th December, 1888.