William Maxwell Vacy-Ash
William Maxwell Vacy-Ash (1886-1940)
1940 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM MAXWELL VACY-ASH, O.B.E., had a varied engineering experience, and for the last twenty years of his career he held important positions in India. He was born at Agra in 1886, but came to England at an early age and received his education at Stanmore Park, Harrow, and at Schorne College, Wilmslow, Bucks, where he studied electrical and mechanical engineering. He then entered the Camborne School of Mines, Cornwall, and subsequently obtained a first-class surveyor's certificate.
In 1903 he became a premium apprentice at the Horwich works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and served for four years, after which he returned to Camborne for a further course of study. He then went to South America and became district electrical and mechanical engineer for about twenty nitrate factories in Chile, and was afterwards employed in Peru on the development of high-tension electrical supply lines. Early in 1914 he went to West Africa as chief electrical engineer to the Abosso Gold Mining Company, on the Gold Coast, for whom he installed a power station consisting of four large gas engines driving 500-volt generators; under his supervision the whole of the mine equipment was electrified.
In October 1914 he returned to England and became a commissioned officer in the mechanical transport section of the R.A.S.C., and served in France, Egypt, and Palestine. Eventually he was made works manager of the base heavy repair workshops at Alexandria. He went to India in 1919 as electrical engineer in the Bombay office of the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company, Ltd., and during 1920 he acted as the firm's manager for Western India. He was then appointed electrical and mechanical adviser to H.H. the Maharajah of Bharatpur, in Rajputana, and himself carried out the electrification of Bharatpur city, palaces, and suburbs; the power for the generators was supplied by large semi-Diesel engines.
In 1925 Mr. Vacy-Ash was made chief mechanical and electrical engineer to the Government of H.H. the Maharajah of Alwar, Rajputana, with control of four power stations, .waterworks, and water supply schemes, the State workshops, and the telephone department. Three years later he became electrical inspector to the Government of Baluchistan, with headquarters at Quetta, and was subsequently appointed chief inspector of factories and boilers and electrical inspector to the Government of India, with offices in Delhi. He remained in the India Reserve of Officers, in which he held the rank of captain.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1929 and was well known amongst engineers in India, where he rendered valuable services to the Institution as a member of the Indian Advisory Committee. He returned to England late in 1939, intending to offer his services for the war period, but his death which occurred on 11th February 1940, prevented this.