Henry Percival Riley
Henry Percival Riley (1877-1912)
1913 Obituary [1]
HENRY PERCIVAL RILEY was born at Swindon on 9th January 1877.
He was educated at Swindon High School from 1889 to 1894, and attended evening classes at the Swindon and North Wilts Technical School daring his apprenticeship, which was served from 1895 to 1899 in the locomotive works of the Great Western Railway at Swindon.
On the completion of his apprenticeship, he entered the marine department of the Great Western Railway and served for six months as 3rd Engineer on the S.S. "Ibex."
He next made voyages on a tramp steamer, and then in 1901 entered the service of the P. and 0. Steam Navigation Co., spending nearly two years on S.S. "Arabia," as assistant engineer, after which he obtained the 2nd Engineer's Board of Trade Certificate.
On leaving the service at the end of 1901 he was engaged in the running department of the Great Central Railway, and was subsequently made foreman of the Running Sheds.
In 1905 he went out to Cuba to take up the position as draughtsman on the Cuban Central Railway, and in May of the following year he was appointed chief carriage and wagon foreman at the Cardenas Works of the United Railways of Havana.
Two years later he was promoted to be assistant locomotive superintendent of a division, and on the erection of new locomotive workshops in Havana in October 1909, he was appointed works manager.
In 1911 he resigned, to enter the service of the Central Argentine Railway, Argentine Republic, as Chief of the Locomotive, Water Supply, and Vehicle Revision Section, and continued in that position until July 1912, when he was appointed Running Superintendent of the Rosario District.
His death took place from peritonitis on 14th November 1912, in his thirty-sixth year.
He was elected an Associate Member of this Institution in 1911.