John William Thorpe
John William Thorpe (1875-1943)
1943 Obituary [1]
JOHN WILLIAM THORPE was a transport engineer during the whole of his professional career and for fourteen years, from 1920 to 1934, held the responsible and exacting position of rolling stock and works superintendent in the tramways and transport department of Liverpool Corporation.
He was born in 1875 and after serving his apprenticeship with Messrs. Allen Haigh and Company, Halifax, from 1889 to 1896, remained with ,he firm in charge of the tool room until 1900, in which year he was appointed assistant rolling stock superintendent of the Halifax Corporation Tramways. Four years later he became superintendent in a similar undertaking of the Oldham Corporation.
On relinquishing this position in 1920 he proceeded to his final appointment at Liverpool, where his powers of organisation and ability to control the activities of a numerous personnel engaged in a great variety of trades and occupations had full scope. For a period of six years, from 1928, he represented the Municipal Tramways Association on the Committee of the British Standards and Engineering Association.
Mr. Thorpe retired in 1934 and lived at Worthing, where his death occurred on 23rd February 1943. He had been a Member of the Institution since 1922.