Joseph Stanhope Watson
Joseph Stanhope Watson (1870-1934)
1935 Obituary.[1]
JOSEPH STANHOPE WATSON, who was elected a Member of the Institution in 1928, was born in Gateshead on the 18th August, 1870. He was apprenticed to Messrs. Clarke, Chapman and Co., and, after a period at sea as a marine engineer, joined the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Co. (now the North Eastern Electric Supply Co.). He was later appointed assistant electrical engineer to the South Shields Corporation, but rejoined in 1898 the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Co., with whom he remained until his death. When the electric supply industry formed their Whitley Councils in 1919-20, he was appointed chairman of the North-East Coast Area (No. 1) District Joint Board, and the North-East Area (No. 1) District Joint Industrial Council, and he retained these offices continuously. He was also a member of the Local Panel of the Court of Referees in connection with unemployment insurance. He devoted much of his leisure time to charitable work.
As a colleague, and with those who served under him, he was very popular, and he spent much time and energy in promoting the welfare of the company's staff and in the official organizations run by them. It was in the field of sport and in the personal active interest he took in all forms of sport promoted by the company's employees that he so endeared himself to them—the more particularly as he himself took part in many of the competitive events they promoted. He was thus personally known to almost all employees throughout the extensive area of the company, and was most popular and greatly esteemed by them.
His death, which occurred on the 24th November, 1934, as a result of heart failure during a game of badminton, came as a great shock to his friends and associates. All felt the sudden loss of so loyal and popular a friend.