Thomas Lodwick Miller (1860-1941) of Fawcett, Preston and Co
1901 Living at 8 Cheltenham Avenue, Toxteth: Thomas Lodwick Miller (age 41 born Liverpool), Consulting Electrical Engineer and Employer. With his wife Annie Sophia Miller (age 33 born Scotland) and their son William Conley Miller (age 1 born Liverpool). One servant.[1]
1942 Obituary [2]
THOMAS LODWICK MILLER, O.B.E., after serving his apprenticeship from 1875 to 1880 with Messrs. Fawcett, Preston and Company in Liverpool, remained with that firm as draughtsman, being engaged principally in hydraulic and pumping engine machinery, and on the design and work for several large cotton-pressing factories in India; he also designed the first "Watson Cyclone" cotton presser and gave lectures on it to students at Liverpool University.
In 1887 he was elected a Member of the Institution, and three years later he established a business as a consulting engineer, specializing in electrical work. His advice was extensively sought in connection with electric lighting and power installations for Bootle town hall, district, and tramways, and for similar work at Hereford, Loughborough, and other towns; he was appointed consulting engineer to the Hoylake and West Kirby urban district council in 1900.
One of his most important works, the contracts for which were carried out between 1919 and 1925, was the modernizing of a sugar refinery at Taikoo, Hong Kong, for Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, and the design and supervision of the construction of electrical plant for driving the refinery and the adjoining dockyard; he also reported on cargo-handling appliances at Shanghai, Hankow, and Canton.
During the war of 1914-18 he served on the Liverpool Munitions of War Committee, first as secretary and later as general manager and secretary, with control of six national shell factories, including a shell-forging and a cartridge-case factory. In addition he was responsible for the work of two semi-national factories and eight contractors engaged on machining shells; he was awarded the O.B.E. in recognition of his services in this direction.
Mr. Miller, who was also a Member of the Institutions of Civil and Electrical Engineers, retired in 1928. His death occurred on 21st May 1941, in his eighty-second year.
1941 Obituary [3]
THOMAS LODWICK MILLER, O.B.E., who died on the 21st May, 1941, was a well-known Liverpool consulting engineer. He came of an old shipbuilding family and was born at Toxteth Park, Liverpool, on the 21st March, 1860.
Educated at the Liverpool Institute, he entered the works of Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, the old- established Liverpool engineers, as apprentice in July, 1875. In the meantime he pursued his technical training at the Liverpool Royal Institution, in the building where the Mersey and North Wales Centre now meets, and he won the much coveted Queen's Prize in 1879, 1880 and 1881, for distinction in the South Kensington Science and Art Examinations.
After attending lectures at the Liverpool University College, he became an assistant lecturer to Prof. Hele-Shaw and, in 1888, was appointed Superintendent of the Walker Engineering Laboratories. At this time he was associated with the design of the "Watson Cyclone" cotton press - a great improvement on the existing type of baling machinery.
In 1890 he commenced practice in Liverpool as a consultant and also represented Messrs. Scott and Mountain. He was responsible for the lay-out of many of the early public electric supply systems, including those for Hereford, Bootle, Barnsley, and Hoylake and West Kirby, and of many large institutions, also for the equipment and electrification of a rice mill at Rangoon for Messrs. J. Heap.
The Liverpool Engineering Society elected him President for 1903-4 and his Address was a review of various sources of power, in which he made out a strong case for hydro-electric systems, then very much in their infancy in this country.
During the war of 1914-18, as Secretary to the Liverpool Munitions of War Committee, in association with Mr. E. C. Given, he did outstanding work, which was later recognized by the award of the O.B.E. Resuming his consulting practice after the war he carried out important sugar milling installations in China for Messrs. J. Swire, his experience with Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and his electrical knowledge specially qualifying him for this work.
He retired from active practice about 10 years ago and devoted some of his leisure to the compiling of the memoirs of a very full and interesting life, which have furnished much of the data for this notice. One indication of his varied interests is shown in his connection with the Liverpool Lyceum Club, of which he was Hon. Secretary for many years.
He joined The Institution in 1891 as an Associate and was elected a Member in 1893. He served for several years on the Committee of the Manchester Local Section and was Chairman of the Section in 1906-7.