John Sutcliffe (1869-1932)
John Sutcliffe (1869-1932)
1932 Obituary[1]
"THE LATE MR. JOHN SUTCLIFFE.
We note with regret the death of Mr. John Sutcliffe, which occurred on May 7, after a long illness at his home in Dartmouth-row, Blackheath. Mr. Sutcliffe, who had been Engineer and Surveyor of the London Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich since 1915, was born in Lancashire on August 7, 1869. After receiving his general education at Burnley Grammar School, he entered the office of Mr. J. E. Stafford, Borough Engineer of Burnley, as an articled pupil in January, 1885. After completing a pupilage of four years, he was for a few months temporary assistant to the Borough Surveyor of Bolton, and was engaged in the preparation of details connected with the Local Government Board Inquiry into the extension of that borough. In January, 1890, he became assistant surveyor to the Horwich Local Board, and was employed on works in connection with the construction of an intercepting sewer, two miles in length, extensions to main sewers, and various street improvements. In the autumn of the. same year he proceeded to Sunderland, as assistant to Messrs. Joseph Jackson and Sons, civil engineers, Bolton, who were carrying out waterworks extensions in Sunderland. In January, 1891, however, Mr. Sutcliffe was appointed assistant to Mr. W. H. Brockbank, Borough Surveyor of Bolton, and continued to occupy this position for two years. He was given the task of preparing plans for a new railway station scheme, for two miles of tramway route, five miles of sewers, a river retaining wall, and other works. In May, 1893, he became assistant borough surveyor of Warrington. His duties consisted in the preparation of plans for new-sewers, roads, public buildings, and street improvements. During the 1893-94 session, he read a paper before the Manchester Association of Students of the Institution of Civil Engineers, entitled, “ The Maintenance of Macadamised Roads.”
After serving several years at Warrington, Mr. Sutcliffe came to London, where he was destined to spend the remainder of his life, in order to take up the appointment of Deputy Engineer of the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth. In 1908, he became Engineer of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford, and continued in tins capacity until he was appointed to a similar .position at Woolwich in 1915. During the years which followed, and especially since the conclusion of the European war, he was responsible for a number of important development schemes in the Borough of Woolwich. He supervised the design and construction of the Eltham by-pass road, widened and modernised Eltham High-street, and, in later years, took a leading part in the planning and construction of extensive municipal housing estates, of which that at Middle Park, Eltham, is the most recent, as recorded in our bólumns at the time- the first sod of this estate was cut on February 14, 1931. Mr. Sutcliffe was a former Student of the Institution of Civil Engineers and was elected an associate member on March 3, 1896. He was elected a member of the Institution of Municipal and County Engineers in 1909 and served for many years on the council, of that body. Mr. Sutcliffe'became a member of the Royal Sanitary Institute in November, 1902, and was made a fellow in 1926."