Peter Dewar Ewing
Peter Dewar Ewing (c1866-1932), managing director of J. Samuel White and Co.
1932 Obituary[1]
"THE LATE MR. P. D. EWING.
A wide circle of naval architects and marine engineers will learn with regret of the death, on June 1 last, of Mr. Peter Dewar Ewing, C.B.E., which occurred suddenly in a nursing home in Glasgow, following upon an operation. Mr. Ewing, who was 66 years of age, was managing director of Messrs. J. Samuel White and Company, Limited, Cowes and Southampton. He was born at Cambuslang, Lanark, and, after receiving his general education at Blantyre and at Hamilton Academy, served an apprenticeship of five years with Messrs. Aitken and Mansel, Whiteinch, Glasgow. For the succeeding nine years he was employed in the drawing office and shipyard of Messrs. The Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Company, Limited, and during the winter evenings he taught naval architecture at Hamilton Crescent School, Partick. He then travelled south to take up the position of manager of the works of Messrs. Forrest and Son, Limited, Wyven-hoe, Colchester, Essex. After serving in this capacity for some time he returned to Scotland, having secured the appointment of manager to Messrs. Ardrossan Dockyard, Limited, Ardrossan, Ayrshire. Some years prior to the outbreak of the European War, Mr. Ewing became general manager of Messrs. Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, Limited, Troon and Ayr. He relinquished this position during the war, however, to take up the appointment of director and manager of Messrs, The Standard Shipbuilding Company, Limited, Chepstow, Monmouthshire. Subsequently, he became general manager of Messrs. Cox and Company (Engineers), Limited, Falmouth.
For his services to his country during the war, Mr. Ewing received the C.B.E., in 1918. He joined the firm of Messrs. J. Samuel White and Company, Limited. Cowes, Isle of Wight, as managing director in 1920. In the years which followed, he became associated with the construction of a number of steamers, yachts, and other craft. These included the Thames pleasure steamship Crested Eagle, the official yacht of the Governor of the Straits Settlement, and other vessels of that type. Mr. Ewing was also concerned with the construction of a number of naval vessels, among which were the three Argentine flotilla leaders Mendoza, Tucuman and La Rioja, laid down in June, 1927, and completed in 1928-1929. Furthermore, the four Greek destroyers Aetos, Ierax, Leon and Panther, were reconstructed and re-boilered at the Cowes shipyard of Messrs. J. Samuel White, under Mr. Ewing’s supervision in 1924— 1925. Mr. Ewing became a member of the Institution of Naval Architects in 1899 and was elected to the Council in 1923; he represented the Institution on the Advisory Committe of the Froude Tank, at the National Physical Laboratory, for some years. He became a member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in December, 1908. Mr. Ewing was also Chairman of the Isle of Wight Shipbuilding and Engineering Employers’ Association, and a member of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights."