William Wade Fitzherbert Pullen
William Wade Fitzherbert Pullen (1866-1937)
1896 of Fairley Villa, Oxford Road, Putney, London
1937 Obituary [1]
Professor WILLIAM WADE FITZHERBERT PULLEN was perhaps best known on account of his numerous textbooks, chiefly dealing with various aspects of steam engineering, and including also an important work on applied mechanics. He was born in 1866, the son of a Gloucestershire farmer, and was a pupil of Mr. T. Hurry Riches, M.I.Mech.E., from 1883 to 1887, in the locomotive department of the Taff Vale Railway, Cardiff.
In 1887 he obtained a Whitworth Scholarship and became a student at the Royal College of Science, London. Subsequently he returned to Cardiff as lecturer in engineering at the University. He was appointed head of the mechanical engineering department at the South Western Polytechnic, Chelsea, in 1895, and held this position until his appointment to the senior inspectorate of the Technological Branch of the Board of Education in Lancashire. During these years he also wrote most of his technical works, and in 1909 he contributed, jointly with Mr. W. T. Finlay, a paper to the Institution, on "Experiments in Lubrication". He was also an examiner in engineering subjects both for the National Certificate examinations and at the City and Guilds of London Institute.
In 1926 Professor Pullen retired and lived at Southampton. At the Summer Meeting of the Institution held there in 1928 he was one of the honorary secretaries and rendered great service in arranging the various excursions and other activities.
He was on the roll of the Institution for no less than fifty years, having been elected a Graduate in 1887 and transferred to Membership in 1890. His death occurred on 9th August 1937.