Richard Thomas Surtees
Richard Thomas Surtees (c1865-1940)
1941 Obituary [1]
RICHARD THOMAS SURTEES served his apprenticeship from 1881 to 1888 with Messrs. Swan and Hunter, shipbuilders and engineers, of Wallsend-on-Tyne. He was manager for Messrs. W. Surtees and Sons, contractors, of Benfieldside, and took charge of the construction of new storage reservoirs of the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company at West Hallington from 1888 to 1892.
For the remainder of his professional career he occupied various positions as a municipal engineer, and was especially concerned with water supply, and maintenance. In 1892 he was appointed surveyor for the Borough of Morpeth, where he supervised the sinking of two boreholes and the erection of a pumping plant for the water supply. From 1894 to 1902 he was engineer to the Hexham Urban District Council, and during this period he remodelled the whole system, including two service reservoirs, and he also installed a new turbine.
Being allowed a limited private practice, he designed and carried out a new pumping plant for Gallowhill, and advised in connection with water schemes at Corbridge-on-Tyne, and other places. He was appointed to Newton-in-Makerfield Urban' District Council in 1902, as engineer and manager in the gas, water, and electricity departments, and held this appointment until he retired in 1933.
Mr. Surtees was elected a Member of the Institution in 1908. His death occurred in his seventy-fifth year on 19th September 1940.