William Cross (1850-1916)
William Cross (1850-1916) M Inst C E
1850 Born in Grimsargh, Preston, Lancashire, son of William Assheton Cross, militia officer
1881 William Cross 30, widower, lived in Elswick with his daughter, Katherine May Cross [1]
1882 Became a partner in R. and W. Hawthorn
1882-4 Partner in the new business of Ernest Scott which acquired the old Close works of R and W Hawthorn.
1882 Member of I Mech E
1886 Associate I C E
1891 Wm Cross 40, civil engineer, employer, lived in Jesmond, with Marianne Cross 40, Dorothy Harrington Cross 8, Katherine May Cross 10[2]
1891 Member Inst C E
1896 Having been a cyclist for some time, William Cross designed a new steam engine to be fitted into a tricycle or light carriage[3]
1897 of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After some years of experiments he claimed to be ready to supply a vaporising burner that could use ordinary lamp oil and produce a blue to purple flame without any form of independent air blast being used.
c.1901 MD of Simpson, Strickland and Co in Dartmouth
Involved in the Cross-Thornycroft water tube boiler
1901 William Cross 50, civil engineer, employer, visiting Robert Neville Grenville in Butleigh[4]
1906 A marine engineer and widower when he married Alice Mary Macandrew in Kensington[5]
1911 William Cross 60, civil engineer, retired, lived in Frensham with Alice Mary Cross 47 Katherine May Cross 30[6]
1916 of Frensham
1916 Died. 'The funeral of the late Mr William Cross, who was at one time connected with the firms of Messrs Armstrong and Messrs Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., and subsequently with the Hon. Sir Charles Parson's Works, took place at Kingswear. At the graveside were Mr F. C. Simpson, Mr P. P. Alexander (Brixham), Mr and Mrs Popham (Kingswear), Mrs Gibbs, Mr West (Messrs Simpson, Strickland and Co), and Mr Wills.'[7]
1916 Obituary [8]
WILLIAM CROSS, born at Preston on the 27th November, 1850,died at Kelso on the 30th August, 1916.
Trained at Elswick, he subsequently acted, for 7 years, as Assistant Manager of the Ordnance Works.
In 1882 he became a partner, and later a director, of R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Manager of the Locomotive Department, which he remodelled and modernised. He retired in 1906.
On the outbreak of war he offered his services to the Ministry of Munitions, and at the time of his death was working with Sir Charles Parsons at Heaton.
Mr. Cross was elected an Associate Member on the 2nd February, 1886, and was transferred to the class of Members on the 13th January, 1891.