William Hugh Woodcock
William Hugh Woodcock (1844-1908)
1899 Civil engineer of West Norwood, with Thomas Cooper of King's Lynn made a patent application on "improvements in roller bearings".
1909 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM HUGH WOODCOCK, born at Hinckley, Leicbstershire, in 1844, was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School, and served his articles to Messrs. Kennard Brothers, of Crumlin, Mon., with whom he subsequently remained 2 years as an assistant.
Between 1865 and 1867 he assisted his father, the late Mr. W. Woodcock, then Managing Director of the London Warming and Ventilating Company.
From 1870 to 1892 he acted as chief assistant to the late Mr. Edward Woods, Past-President, and during that period was engaged in carrying out many important engineering works, at home and abroad, with which Mr. Woods was associated. Whilst with Mr. Woods he also acted for several years, by arrangement with that gentleman, as advisory engineer to the late Sir William Shelford, in connection with the design of the more important bridges on the Hull and Barnsley Railway, including the large swing-bridges over the Rivers Ouse and Hull.
In 1892, on the recommendation of the late Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, Mr. Woodcock was appointed by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, Special Commissioner, to report to the Cape Government on the condition of the bridges on the railways throughout the Colony, and while thus engaged, he was also commissioned by the Cape Government, to report on the expenditure and as to the best method to be adopted to secure the completion of the Cape Town Harbour Works.
Mr. Woodcock returned to England in 1893 after receiving the thanks of the Cape Government for the way in which these commissions had been fulfilled, and later he had the satisfaction of seeing many of the suggestions which he had made in his reports carried out. He was on several occasions employed by the Board of Trade to inspect and report on public bridges and piers in Great Britain.
In 1901 Mr. Woodcock, in conjunction with Mr. Walter A. Harper of Messrs. Harper Brothers and Company, was instructed by the Ecuadorian Association, Limited, London, to proceed to Ecuador and make a thorough investigation of the existing state of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway and works connected therewith.
He also prepared designs for swing-bridges over the Forth and Clyde Canal, and for the Falkirk and District Tramways. Subsequently, besides acting as Engineer-in-Charge in London of work in connection with the Buenos Aires Midland Railway, for Messrs. Harpers, he designed for Messrs. C. H. Walker and Company, Limited, the special plant comprising a system of movable cofferdams, working from pontoons, employed in the construction of the Deep Water Quay at Rio de Janiero.
By his death, which occurred on the 28th March, 1908, not only is the profession deprived of the services of an engineer of exceptiona1 ability and originality in design, but the many friends who valued his never-failing help, advice and sympathy have sustained an irreparable loss.
Mr. Woodcock was elected a Member of The Institution on the 3rd March, 1891.