Alexander Caird Buchan
Alexander Caird Buchan (1901-1948)
1950 Obituary [1]
"ALEXANDER CAIRD BUCHAN , B.Sc., spent the greater part of his professional career in South America, where, for many years, he was concerned with the oil industry.
He was born in 1901 and educated at Kilmarnock Academy and the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, where he obtained an Associateship and graduated B.Sc. in engineering. After serving his apprenticeship at the locomotive works of Messrs. Andrew Barclay, Sons and Company, Ltd., in Kilmarnock, from 1917 to 1923, he was employed for a year in the drawing office of the North British Locomotive Company, Ltd., Glasgow. He then proceeded to South America to take up the appointment of engineer in charge of building and plant construction for the Caribbean Petroleum Company of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Subsequently he became assistant resident field engineer, and in 1931 he was made resident engineer.
Two years later, however, he accepted an appointment as assistant chief engineer to the United British Oilfields of Trinidad and held this post for four years. He then joined the staff of the Sarawak Oilfields, Ltd., as assistant chief engineer and a year later was promoted to be chief engineer. In this capacity he was responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of all facilities for two oilfields and a refinery. He returned to South America in 1942 ; in 1943 he was acting chief of the materials department, and from that time until his death, which occurred as the result of an aircraft crash on 15th December 1948, he was chief engineer. Mr. Buchan was elected a Student of the Institution in 1925 and was transferred to Graduateship in 1926, Associate Membership in 1931, and to Membership in 1944."