Walter Joseph Hill
Walter Joseph Hill (c1878-1936)
1936 Obituary [1]
WALTER JOSEPH HILL was associated with the Tai-Koo Sugar Refinery in Hong Kong for twenty-six years. He joined the company as assistant engineer, and took charge of the running of the electrical plant and the installation of new machinery. Later he supervised the engineering and pattern makers' shops. In 1908 he became senior assistant engineer and carried out a number of engine and boiler tests on the plant. He was promoted to be chief engineer in 1924, at which time the refinery was producing 3,500 tons per week. Shortly afterwards a new additional refinery was laid out, with a capacity of 4,000 tons per week, and Mr. Hill was concerned with the installation of the new plant.
Mr. Hill was born at Portland, Australia, and in 1894 graduated at the University of Melbourne. He served an apprenticeship from 1893 to 1895 with Messrs. Arthur Hocking and Company, agricultural engineers, of Horsham, Australia, and served a further three years' apprenticeship with the Tanjong Pajon Dock Company, Ltd., of Singapore.
In 1899 he went to sea as junior engineer in steamships owned by the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company; subsequently he obtained his First-class Board of Trade Certificate.
In 1902 he joined the Taigoo Sugar Refinery. He served as a lieutenant with the Royal Engineers during the War, and was mentioned in dispatches. Afterwards he returned to Hong Kong, and in 1928 he resigned and lived near Chatham.
He then became a partner in engineering works at Rochester and at Preston, Lancs.
His death occurred on 5th August 1936, in his fifty-ninth year.
He was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1925, and was a past-president of the Engineers and Shipbuilders Institution of Hong Kong.