Robert Ogilvy Weston
Robert Ogilvy Weston (1873-1939)
1939 Obituary [1]
"ROBERT OGILVY WESTON, M.B.E., was born in 1873 and educated at Dulwich College from 1882 to 1887 and Dulwich College Engineering School from 1887 to 1890. He served his apprenticeship in the works of the Chatteris Engineering Works Co, Chatteris, Cambridge, from 1890 to 1894. He spent 1895 as an electrician with the Dunbar Roodepoort Gold Mining Co, Transvaal, and for the next two years he was engaged in milling and metallurgical work at the Geldenhuis Deep Mine, Transvaal.
In 1899 he was appointed mill manager to the Globe and Phoenix Gold Mining Company, Ltd., Rhodesia, and in 1903 he became chief mechanical engineer and mill manager. In the latter post he was responsible for the erection and maintenance of the metallurgical processes and all the plant and machinery of this company. From 1909 to 1911 he was general manager of a group of mines, after which he went into business as a consulting engineer. He continued in his practice until 1916, when he became engineer and subagent to Messrs. Dick, Kerr and Company, Ltd., by whom he was engaged on the construction of aerodromes and building contracts. In 1918 he was appointed staff civil engineer at the Air Ministry, in England; in 1919 he was put in charge of the examination and of war construction contracts. In 1920 he was awarded the M.B.E. and appointed area mechanical and electrical engineer in the R.A.F. In the following year he returned to Southern Rhodesia where he was responsible for the construction of reinforced concrete bridges for the Rhodesian Government, and for the foundations, abutments, and piers of three large bridges over rivers for the Rhodesia Railways. He died on 23rd July 1939. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1906."