Walter Noble Twelvetrees
Walter Noble Twelvetrees (c1852-1941)
1942 Obituary [1]
WALTER NOBLE TWELVETREES received his technical education in the engineering department of King's College, London, and served his apprenticeship, from 1871 to 1876, in the workshops and drawing office of Messrs. Harper Twelvetrees, Ltd., engineers, of Bow. He subsequently gained some months' experience of marine engineering with General Navigation of Italy and as junior engineer on S.S. Siris, of Genoa.
From 1883 to 1887, he held an appointment with the Rangoon Steam Laundry and Cleaning Works, Ltd., where he superintended the making and erection of plant and iron buildings. He was subsequently resident engineer at the Hotel Mont Dore in Bournemouth, during the installation of steam heating plant and hydraulic lifts. In 1892, he carried out extensive engineering contracts for the Dundee Hospital and Asylum, and later for the Corporation of Newcastle public baths. He was for some years manager of the engineering department of Messrs. Benham and Sons, of Wigmore Street, London, and was also consulting engineer to the Warwickshire County Hospital, Colchester Workhouse, and other public institutions. In addition he was director of Messrs. Harper Twelvetrees, Ltd., for which firm he also acted as engineer.
Mr. Twelvetrees, whose death occurred in his eighty-ninth year on 21st June 1941, had been a Member of the Institution since 1897. He was, from 1909 until his retirement in 1932, editor of Ferroconcrete, and he also edited Spon's Engineers' Price Book. In addition, he contributed to various technical periodicals, including the Engineering Supplement to The Times and The Builder, and was the author of many textbooks on building construction, structural steelwork, and reinforced concrete.