Alexander McCallum Toppin
Alexander McCallum Toppin (1889-1946)
1948 Obituary [1]
"ALEXANDER MCCALLUM TOPPIN, who was born in 1889, served his apprenticeship with Messrs. J. P. Rennoldson and Sons, engineers and shipbuilders, of South Shields, from 1904 to 1910 and during the same period attended the Winterbottom School of Engineering. He then went to Canada, and after a brief experience as assistant power engineer on the Canadian Pacific Railway, joined the staff of the Union Oil Co, of California, as a station engineer. Subsequently he was an engineer officer on oil tankers and carried out constructional work on oil depots. During the war of 1914-18 he served at sea as junior engineer officer for four years, and was then commissioned in the Royal Engineers and employed as engineer in charge of workshops and bridges in Mesopotamia.
In 1921 he received an appointment as engineer to the Anglo Iranian Oil Company, Ltd., with responsibility for taking over oil depots from the Army. Later he became area engineer. In 1938 he took over the same duties for the Rafidain Oil Company, Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian), and continued to act in that capacity until his death, which occurred on 4th March 1946. Mr. Toppin had been an Associate Member of the Institution since 1937. He was also a founder member of the Institute of Fuel."