Gilbert Archer
Gilbert Archer (1867-1929)
1930 Obituary [1]
GILBERT ARCHER was born in London on the 13th August, 1867, his father, Thomas Archer, being a well-known writer and an original member of the Savage Club.
He was educated at Cowper Street School and studied electrical engineering at Finsbury Technical College under the late Prof. Silvanus Thompson.
After a period of practical training with the Hammond Electricity Co., Brighton, he took up his first appointment in 1888, with the Brighton supply undertaking, when Mr. Arthur Wright was in control.
In 1894 he went to Dublin as senior assistant to Mr. Mark Ruddle, of the Dublin Corporation Electricity Department, becoming chief assistant two years later. At that time the Dublin generating station was in Fleet Street, and the supply was single phase at 2 000 volts with house transformers and Callender bitumen cables.
Ten years later, the late Mr. Robert Hammond installed the then new 3-phase 4-wire system of distribution and erected the generating station at Pigeon House Fort. Mr. Archer had a very extensive knowledge of 3-phase working in all its aspects, and more particularly on the distribution side.
In 1918 he became deputy city electrical engineer of Dublin, a position which he held until his death.
He was a tireless worker and was more a father than a chief to the members of his staff, by whom he was held in great affection and esteem. He was a man of many interests, and in a busy life found time for a vast amount of social and philanthropic work. The taking-over of the Dublin electricity undertaking in 1929 by the Free State Electricity Supply Board involved him in work which proved too much for his health, and he died in his office with tragic suddenness on the 13th December, 1929. A widow and two sons survive him.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1927.