Percy Cowderoy
Percy Cowderoy (c1889-1950)
1950 Obituary [1]
"PERCY COWDEROY was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1919, and transferred to Membership six years later. In the earlier part of his professional career he had been chiefly concerned with the oil industry, but since 1931 he had been responsible for the management of all engineering work and new construction for Messrs. Barclay Perkins and Company, Ltd., Southwark, brewers, until his death, which occurred on 1st January 1950, at the age of sixty-one.
After attending classes at the Wandsworth Technical Institute from 1901 to 1903 he served a two years' apprenticeship with Messrs. F. Plumstead and Company, London. Three years' experience then followed as assistant in the estimating and supervising department of Messrs. Drake and Gorham, Ltd., electrical engineers, before going, in 1909, to the United States, where he was engineer-in-charge of the erection of boring plant and other gear for the Natrona Oil Co of Wyoming.
After a brief sojourn in Russia, as section engineer to the Anglo-Maikop Oil Company, Ltd., he became attached to the Ministry of Munitions, and served for three years as mechanical engineer in the explosives department. In 1920 he secured an appointment as engineer and manager to the Globe Oil Fields, Ltd., in which capacity he was responsible for the purchase and running of plant. Two years later he was in France, where he was in charge of exploratory drilling for oil and later the supply of natural gas to the town of Arnberien. Prior to taking up his final appointment with Messrs. Barclay Perkins and Company he was for seven years in Roumania as assistant general fields manager for the Phoenix Oil and Transport Company, Ltd., and as general fields manager for the Sondrum Oil Co."