Ernest Richard Dolby
Ernest Richard Dolby ( -1946) of Dolby and Williamson
1946 Obituary [1]
ENGINEERS in many places, particularly those of the older school, will learn with regret of the death of Mr. Ernest Richard Dolby, which occurred at his home at 21, Henderson Road, Wandsworth Common, S.W.l8, on May 16th.
Mr. Dolby, who was born in Liverpool in 1861, was educated at the Leeds Institute, Yorkshire College, and Leeds University.
His apprenticeship was served at the works of Hudswell, Clarke and Co., Ltd., locomotive builders of Leeds, and after passing through the shops and drawing-office there, he was sent out alone, at the age of twenty-one, to Portugal to supervise the erection of three locomotives. He remained there for six months, and subsequently carried out similar work in Ireland and Holland.
He gained a Whitworth Scholarship in 1885.
In the early part of 1888 Dolby joined the staff of the late Mr. J. A. Timmis, M. Inst.C.E., of Westminster, and was there engaged principally on work connected with the electric lighting and braking of trains. In August, 1889, he set up on his own account as a consulting engineer, and since then, as senior partner in the firm of Dolby and Williamson, has specialised in consulting work for public institutions, hospitals, factories, and large office buildings.
Mr. Dolby joined the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1888, and he was also a member of the institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was a Past-President of the Whitworth Society and for the first ten years of that Society's life he served as its secretary. He showed an active interest, too, in the work of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers.
Other facts about Mr. Dolby's long career in the engineering profession which it is of interest to recall are that he was secretairer apporteur at the International Railway Congresses in London in 1895 and Washington in 1905. He also acted for the Board of Trade as one of the jurors at the International Exhibition in Brussels in 1910. His literary work dealt mainly with heating and ventilation, and hospital engineering. At the Chicago Exhibition of 1893 he served as a special commissioner for THE ENGINEER.
1946 Obituary [2]