Frank Gerald Wilkinson
Frank Gerald Wilkinson (1878-1944)
1945 Obituary [1]
FRANK GERALD WILKINSON, whose death occurred at Northwood, Middlesex, on 23rd April 1944, was for nearly twenty years engineer to the Borough of Willesden. He was born in 1878 and after serving his apprenticeship with Messrs. Howard and Bullough, Ltd., textile engineers, of Accrington, from 1893 to 1898, attended classes at the Municipal College of Technology in Manchester for two years. On the completion of a short engagement as assistant to the surveyor of the Whitworth Urban District Council, he filled a similar position under the borough engineer of Rawtenstall and was employed on the erection of a destructor and the construction of sewers.
From 1903 to 1907 he was resident engineer to the Rochdale Corporation. He then obtained his first appointment in the South as deputy engineer to the Borough of Wimbledon, where he was responsible to the chief engineer for the execution of numerous works, including electric pumping plant and the erection of a destructor. Eight years later he became engineer and surveyor to the Borough of Deptford, and in 1919 entered upon his final position at Willesden, which he held until his retirement owing to ill health in 1938.
He was an authority on main drainage and road construction and the author of a treatise on the latter subject. During his twenty years' service at Willesden he was responsible for the extensive industrial development which took place and for the subsequent housing schemes. Mr. Wilkinson will long be remembered in connection with the work which he performed on behalf of the Municipal and County Engineers Widows and Orphans Fund, and his unfailing interest in the training of young future municipal engineers. He was elected a Graduate of the Institution in 1901 and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1903 and to Membership in 1922. He was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In addition he was a past-president of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers.