John Henry Davis
John Henry Davis (1837-1896)
1896 Obituary [1]
JOHN HENRY DAVIS, born on the 24th of December, 1837, was the son of the late Mr. John Griffin Davis, of Clapham.
He commenced his engineering career at the age of fifteen, when he entered the locomotive works of the London and North Western Railway Company at Crewe. There he remained four years, after which he was engaged for twelve months in the Locomotive Department of the London and South Western Railway.
He then entered the drawing office of Messrs. Neilson & Co., of Glasgow, and after spending eighteen months there passed into the employment of Messrs. Sharp, Stewart & Co. in 1859. Mr. Davis remained with that firm until 1872, and during ten years of that time he was manager of the design department.
He was next for five years manager to Messrs. Nasmyth and Wilson, and while there a 100-ton steam-hammer was made under his supervision, subsequently erected at Woolwich Arsenal under his personal care.
In 1877 Mr. Davis left Patricroft and established himself in London as a Consulting Engineer. During the following sixteen years he was engaged upon work of a varied character, for the Majorca Railway Company, the Salt Company of Ibiza and the Flour Mills Company of the Balearic Islands. He carried out under difficult conditions the narrow-gauge railways in the Island of Majorca and also large flour and jute mills, together with the necessary water-supply.
For some years he acted as Consulting Engineer and Agent in London for the Egyptian Railway Administration, and was rewarded by the Khedive with the Order of the Medjidieh for his services in connection with the railway during the last war in Egypt.
About the year 1893 Mr. Davis unfortunately developed brain trouble and from that time he was obliged to retire from active work. He died at his residence, Slbert House, Sutton, Surrey, on the 20th of February, 1896.
Mr. Davis was elected a Member on the 7th of March, 1882.