Charles Edwin Campbell Shawfield
Charles Edwin Campbell Shawfield (1873-1946)
1947 Obituary [1]
CHARLES EDWIN CAMPBELL SHAWFIELD, who died on the 1st October, 1946, at the age of 73, was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Clitheroe. He received his engineering education at the Durham College of Science, and served his pupilage with the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Electric Supply Co. and with Robey and Co. of Lincoln. He joined the Wolverhampton Electricity Department in 1896 as an Assistant Electrical Engineer, and in 1898 was appointed Borough Electrical Engineer. He was instrumental in instituting, in 1901, a hire-purchase system of electrical installation work in households, and the next year the Lorain system of street traction. He was also responsible for the preliminary change-over of the electrical distribution system in Wolverhampton from 110 volts to 220 volts, direct current, in 1903, and for the subsequent change-over to the 3-wire 440/220-volt d.c. system. In 1908 he installed a 3-phase 6 600-volt a.c. supply at the central power station, mainly for a small number of large industrial consumers. This was to be the forerunner of the general 400/230-volt 3-phase supply in the Borough area.
In 1913 he joined the Knowles Oxygen Co. at Bromborough Port. This Company, later to be known as the International Electrolytic Plant Co., was taken over by Lever Bros., who appointed him their Electrical Engineer. Subsequently he left to join in partnership in the manufacture of electrical switchgear. Later he retired, first to Bournemouth, and then to the Lake District.
He joined The Institution as an Associate Member in 1901, and was elected a Member in 1910. He served as a member of the Birmingham Local Section Committee 1903-06 and 1910-12, and as Vice-Chairman 1912-14.