George Philip Skipworth
George Philip Skipworth (1860-1925)
1911 Visitor at Grand Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, London: George Philip Skipworth (age 50 born Croxby, Lincoln), Mechanical Engineer, Managing Director in France.[1]
1926 Obituary [2]
GEORGE PHILIP SKIPWORTH, O.B.E., was born at Croxby, in Lincolnshire, on 6th September 1860, and received his early education at the Grammar Schools in Oakham and Lincoln, this being followed in 1876-8 by studies at the College Cuvier, at Montbeliard, in France, and at the Gymnasium, Neuwied-am-Rhein, in Germany, a training which gave him most useful acquaintance with the languages of both countries.
He served his apprenticeship, 1878-1881, in the locomotive works of the Great Northern Railway, at Doncaster.
At the age of twenty-four he entered the service of the British Dominion Shipping Co., with whom he remained, ashore and afloat, for three years, acquiring in 1887 a First Class Board of Trade Certificate.
His interest in railway matters in 1888 caused him to return to the service of the Great Northern Railway, and shortly afterwards he found a congenial field for his activities as locomotive inspector in England for the Queensland Government, this being followed by an appointment with Messrs. Brunlees and McKerrow as general inspector.
In 1892 he became general mechanical superintendent to the Alcoy and Gandia Railway and Harbour Co., Ltd., Spain, for whom he carried out much responsible work under difficult conditions; and on his return to England three years later he resumed for a while his work for the Queensland Government, and then became continental representative for Messrs. Turton and Sons, Ltd., of Sheffield.
In 1898 he joined the Westinghouse Brake Co. in London, and after spending some few months in their Works he was transferred to France as assistant manager of the Company's Works at Freinville, near Paris.
The Company was indebted to Mr. Skipworth for several valuable suggestions and improvements in technical matters, notably the differential brake which was adopted generally on the mountain railways of Switzerland. He also distinguished himself in matters connected with the Westinghouse Signal Power stations and with the steam heating of railway carriages.
In 1905 he attended the International Railway Congress in Washington as representative of the Westinghouse Brake Companies in Europe.
In 1911 he was appointed delegate to the general directorate of the Westinghouse Co., in which capacity he did excellent service.
In 1913 he resigned the Paris directorship and moved to Switzerland as engineering expert of the firm and as director of the Swiss branch.
As a consultant, he was frequently entrusted with important missions, particularly in connexion with railway matters in the Balkan States.
At the beginning of the War he offered his services to the British Legation for the organization of the transport of British and American citizens through France to their respective countries. In 1915 he was appointed British Commercial Attache to the "Societe Suisse de Surveillance," and although engineering was his chief interest he made an excellent diplomatist and carried out the tasks entrusted to him by the British Government with skill and address in respect of which he received the O.B.E. in 1917.
His death occurred on 22nd September 1925.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1911.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ 1911 Census
- ↑ 1926 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries