William Frank Pettigrew
William Frank Pettigrew (1858-1942)
1897–1918 Locomotive superintendent of the Furness Railway.
1942 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM FRANK PETTIGREW was well known in locomotive engineering circles with which he was associated during the whole of his professional career. He had been elected a Member of the Institution since 1898 and was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was also a past-president of the Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers of Great Britain and Ireland and the first president of the Barrow Association of Engineers. In 1935 he served as president of the Retired Railway Officers' Society.
Mr Pettigrew was born in 1858 and entered the works of the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford as a pupil under the late Mr. William Adams and subsequently served under the late Mr. Massey Bromley, Mr. T. W. Worsdell, and Mr. James Holden. In 1882 he was appointed assistant manager of the Stratford works and four years later joined the London and South Western Railway and served under his first chief, Mr. Adams, as works manager at Nine Elms. In 1897 he became the chief mechanical engineer of the Furness Railway and held that position until his retirement in 1918.
During the war of 1914-18 he was a member of the Committee of Railways in the North-West of England for assisting in munition production and was also chairman of the Area Board Transport Committee for that district. Mr. Pettigrew was the author of a paper read before members of the Institution in 1901, "History of the Furness Railway Locomotives". He was also the author of several other papers presented before technical societies. He acted as reporter on "Automatic Couplers" at the International Railway Congress held at Washington in 1905. His famous textbook, "A Manual of Locomotive Engineering", was first published in 1899 and was for several years regarded as a standard work on the subject.
Mr. Pettigrew's death occurred at Redhill, Surrey, on 22nd January 1942.
1942 Obituary [2]
WE regret to have to record the death, on January 22nd, of Mr. William Frank Pettigrew, who from 1897 to the end of March, 1918, was locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the Furness Railway.
Mr. Pettigrew received his training at Stratford, being articled to Mr. W. Adams, locomotive superintendent of the then Great Eastern Railway.
When Mr. Adams left to join the London and South Western Railway, Mr. Pettigrew completed his articles under Mr. Massey Bromley, and subsequently was appointed assistant works manager, serving in that capacity under Mr. T. W. Worsdell and Mr. J. Holden.
Later he left Stratford to go to his old chief, Mr. Adams, as works manager at Nine Elms, where he remained until his appointment as locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the Furness Railway at Barrow-in-Furness.
Mr. Pettigrew contributed to the "Proceedings" of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers, and for his paper on "Trials of an Express Locomotive," read jointly with Mr. Adams before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1899, he received the Stephenson Modal and a Telford Premium.
During the twenty-one years Mr. Pettigrew was at Barrow he effected great improvements in the locomotives of the Furness Railway and also in the carriage stock, and in connection with the latter was responsible for the introduction of electric lighting as standard equipment. The mechanical appliances in connection with the extensive docks and harbour at Barrow owned by the railway were also under his care, a were the steamers on Lake Windermere.
Mr. Pettigrew was a member of the Committee of Railways in the North-West of England and Chairman of the Area Board Transport Committee during the last war. In addition, he was President of the Barrow Association of Engineers and a Past President of the Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers of Great Britain and Ireland, and had occupied the position of President of the Retired Railway Officers' Society.
In 1899 the first edition of Mr. Pettigrew's book, "A Manual of Locomotive Engineering," was published, which for some time was a standard work on the subject and which reached its third edition.
Mr. Pettigrew died at his home, "Cashel," Redhill, Surrey, in his eighty-fourth year.