Vernon Cooper (1876-1937)
1937 Obituary [1]
VERNON COOPER was for many years connected with the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway, of which his father was general manager from 1873 to 1886. Mr. Cooper was born in Buenos Aires in 1876, but was educated in England, and completed a three years' course in civil and mechanical engineering at the Central Technical College, South Kensington, in 1896. He then entered the Nine Elms locomotive works of the London and South Western Railway where he served his apprenticeship until 1899. In 1900 he joined the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway as an assistant in the mechanical department. He was appointed general works foreman of the Interoceanic Railway, of Mexico, in 1902, and six years later he joined the Mexican Southern Railway as assistant to the general manager. From 1910 to 1920 he was connected with various railways in the Argentine and Peru, and made a special study of the lubrication of railway rolling stock. He then rejoined the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway and was shortly afterwards appointed principal assistant to the chief mechanical engineer. Mr. Cooper was closely associated with the development of Diesel traction in the Argentine Republic. He retired in 1934 and returned to England. His death occurred at West Dulwich on 23rd September 1936. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1907 and was transferred to Membership in 1929.