Gerald Swale
Gerald Swale (1865-1898)
son of Rev. John Hogarth Swale
of Ingfield Hall, Settle.
1898 Obituary [1]
GERALD SWALE, son of Rev. John Hogarth Swale of Ingfield Hall, Settle, Yorkshire, was born 29th March 1865 in Paris, where his father was chaplain to the British embassy.
His childhood having been spent in Paris and his boyhood at Guildford, he served a three years' pupilage 1877-9 in Messrs. Aveling and Porter's engineering works, Rochester; then for a year and a half he received a training as an electrical engineer in the office of Mr. C. de Kierzkowski Steuart in London, and was afterwards a pupil of Mr. H. Richards in Westminster for engineering surveying.
In 1881 he was engaged as on engineer at the Paris Electrical Exhibition, whence he returned to England and became a pupil of Mr. Druitt Halpin in Westminster.
In 1883 ho was employed at the Vienna Exhibition and the Imperial Opera House, where electric lighting was introduced. Thence he went as an electrical engineer to Bucharest and Sinaia, the palace of the King of Roumania; and then for three years till 1886 to Temesvar, Hungary, as an engineer and draughtsman to the International Electric Co.
Returning to London he was engaged for some time upon the main-line survey of the Great Western Railway, and also upon the scheme for the purification of the River Lea, and upon the preparation of the parliamentary plans for the Latimer Road and Acton Railway.
His health failing, he went to the West Indies, where he had an appointment as engineer in St. Lucia. He then went to Toronto, Canada, where he remained for a considerable time with the Ball Electric Co.
In 1896, after a visit to Italy, he went to Western Australia, and in June 1897 to Paris.
In the beginning of 1898 he went to Victoria in British Columbia, with the intention of starting for Klondike; but ill health intervened, and he died in Victoria from failure of the heart on 22nd June 1898 at the age of thirty-three.
He became a Graduate of this Institution in 1883.