William Marsden Fletcher
Eng. Lieut. Commander William Marsden Fletcher (1865-1934)
1934 Obituary [1]
Eng. Lieut. Commander WILLIAM MARSDEN FLETCHER, R.D., R.N.R., had been a partner in the Liverpool firm of Messrs. E. H. Bushell, Fletcher and King, consulting engineers and naval architects, since 1906, and had travelled widely in the firm's interests in connexion with marine constructional and maintenance work in Europe, Asia, and America.
In addition he was on several occasions appointed engineer assessor at Board of Trade inquiries into maritime disasters, the most notable of which were those of the Vestris and the Islander.
Since 1919 he had also held the position of Liverpool district representative of the Germanischer Lloyd of Berlin.
He was born in Liverpool in 1865 and served an apprenticeship from 1882 to 1887 with Messrs. James Jack and Company, of Liverpool, after which he went to sea in Beaver Line steamships. By 1894 he had risen to be second engineer, and in this capacity he joined Messrs. James Chambers and Company. He became a chief engineer in 1896, and held this position till 1904, when he went into business on his own account as a consulting engineer in Liverpool.
Two years later he commenced his partnership in the firm of Messrs. E. H. Bushell, Fletcher and King. It was due to his initiative that the Liverpool Engineering Society formed a committee to raise funds for the reconditioning of the historic Liverpool and Manchester Railway locomotive Lion, which was latterly owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. The reconditioned Lion hauled a train at the Railway Centenary Exhibition held in Liverpool in 1930, and is now permanently housed at Lime Street station.
Commander Fletcher, whose death occurred on 19th May 1934, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1915 and was transferred to Membership later in the same year. He was also a Member of the Institution of Naval Architects and since 1899 had been attached to the R.N.R.