Frank Granger Coppin
Frank Granger Coppin (1887-1951)
1952 Obituary [1]
"Major FRANK GRANGER COPPIN, who died on 16th July 1951 at the age of sixty-four, had a long record of service with the Corps of Royal Engineers, which he joined in 1906. After serving an apprenticeship with J. T. Rowland and Sons, Wickham, Essex, hydraulic and general engineers, from 1901 to 1906, he took courses in military and field engineering and mechanical transport at Chatham. He was then employed for more than twenty years as supervising engineer at stations at home and abroad, chiefly on public works; his activities included mechanical, civil, and waterworks engineering. In the meantime he attended classes at the Eastleigh, Portsmouth, and York Technical Institutes. During the 1914-18 war he served with the Royal Engineers in France and Italy. In 1921 he was appointed warrant officer with the charge of machinery for the West Riding area of the Northern Command. He left the Army eight years later and served in the Public Works Department of the Government of Tanganyika as water supply superintendent and senior inspector of works until 1939 when he rejoined the Royal Engineers as electrical and mechanical officer with the rank of lieutenant, being promoted later to captain, and to major in 1942. He was posted to the North West District of the Western Command, where, as staff officer, he had a varied responsibility to the chief engineer, including all electrical and water supply, and the provision and maintenance of heating and ventilating plant, in addition to the preparation of drawings and specifications for contracts, and the conduct of negotiations with various public utility undertakings. Major Coppin relinquished his commission on account of ill health in 1945. He had been an Associate Member of the Institution since 1926."