Archibald John Hedgecock
Archibald John Hedgecock ( -1942)
1942 Obituary [1]
ARCHIBALD JOHN HEDGECOCK, who died on the 13th February, 1942, had retired from the position of Chief Engineer of the Contract Department of W. T. Henley's Telegraph Works Co. on the 31st December, 1935. Originally serving a 6-year naval engineering apprenticeship in Portsmouth Dockyard, both ashore and afloat, he had two years in the electrical department there, equipping various ships with light, power and firing control. One of these vessels was the battleship "Royal Arthur," and among his reminiscences of those early days was the erection of the electric launching gear for this ship in 1889 and his explanation of the functions of the equipment to the Duke of Connaught on the day before the launching by Queen Victoria.
He left the dockyard in 1891 and joined the Silvertown Company. During a year with them he installed the complete electrical equipment on several cruisers.
The following year he joined the City of London Electric Lighting Co. and in 1893 laid the first lead-covered paper-insulated cable in the City of London. The site was Giltspur Street, opposite St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the laying was watched by the late Dr. Ferranti.
Throughout his long service with Henley's, which commenced in 1904, he was responsible for many important electrical contracts, including the high-voltage cables for the London United Tramways, the installation of the cables for the Central Argentine and Buenos Aires Pacific Railways, and, in 1924, the laying of the 33 000-volt 3-core cable for the Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago.
Among his other overseas contracts was the laying of telephone cables from Port Said to Suez for the Eastern Telegraph Co.
His judgment and opinion were highly valued, and he frequently accompanied the late Sir George Sutton on business visits to Norway and other countries. In fact he literally travelled the world on his firm's behalf and did much to maintain and enhance the prestige of their name.
Elected an Associate Member of The Institution in 1903, he became a Member in 1923.