John Roger Preston
John Roger Preston (c1879-1949)
1950 Obituary [1]
"JOHN ROGER PRESTON, who was well known as a heating and ventilating engineer, was for twenty-three years senior partner in the firm of Messrs. J. Roger Preston and Partners, London, consulting engineers, until his retirement from business in 1948.
He was educated at schools of the Society of Friends, and at the Lancaster Technical Institute. He began to serve an apprenticeship with Messrs. A. Seward and Company, Ltd., Lancaster, heating and ventilating engineers, in 1893, and after gaining further experience was finally made assistant works manager. In 1907 he joined the technical staff of Messrs. Jones and Attwood, Stourbridge, general engineers, and remained with the firm for three years. He then became the chief engineer of Messrs. Maguire and Gatchell's heating and ventilating department in Dublin, with control of the entire staff and responsibility for production, including engineering equipment for hospitals.
In 1919 Mr. Preston was made a partner in the firm of Messrs. Mumford, Bailey and Preston, London, heating and ventilating engineers, and, during his association with the business, was jointly responsible for several important schemes for the supply of plant to various undertakings and public buildings, including the Port of London Authority's head offices and the Bio-Chemical Laboratory at Cambridge. On the dissolution of the partnership five years later he established his own business and continued, either directly or jointly, to be responsible for numerous undertakings of importance, including the provision of heating, lighting, and general mechanical equipment for hospitals and municipal buildings, and pumps for deep wells. Mr. Preston had been a Member of the Institution since 1930. He was also a Past-President of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers and a member of the Standing Committee of Scientific Research. In addition he was a Fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute, and of the Institute of Arbitrators. Mr. Preston's death, at the age of seventy, occurred at Radlett, Herts., on 13th June 1949."