Arthur Thomas Whiley
Arthur Thomas Whiley (1876-1924)
1924 Obituary [1]
ARTHUR THOMAS WH1LEY was born at Gloucester on 9th September 1876, and was educated at the Widden Schools in that city, supplemented subsequently by attendance at courses in engineering subjects at the local technical schools.
He served his apprenticeship, 1892-7, in his native town at the works of Messrs. Fielding and Platt, Ltd., and after the completion of his term be spent two years in the works of Messrs. Summers and Scott, engineers, of the same city, afterwards going to the Gloucester Wagon and Carriage works, where he remained for six years, during part of that time being examiner in charge of the assembly department.
Further experience was gained at the Whitehead Torpedo Works, and then, in 1906, he obtained engagement with Messrs. Gardners, Ltd., of Gloucester, and was placed in charge of outside work, in the prosecution of which he spent two years in Norway and six months in France.
A short engagement in the former country followed in 1912 with the Norsk Formilk Aktiebolaget, and then in the following year he returned to England to take up a position with Messrs. Joseph Nathan and Co., London, as engineer and technical adviser on food drying machinery.
Thus passed four years, until 1917, when he was appointed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society their chief technical adviser on food machinery and plant, with eight factories under his sole charge.
This was, however, the period of the Great War, and the Government requisitioned his services for nearly two years as chief technical adviser on machinery connected with the conservation of milk foods.
On the conclusion of this engagement in 1919 he resumed his work for the Co-operative Wholesale Society, but this was only for a few months as, later in the same year, he returned to his old firm, Messrs. Joseph Nathan and Co., London, as engineer and chief technical adviser, a position involving the designing and erection of factories and their equipment, at home and abroad, for the conservation of food. Milk drying plant and machinery were special features of Mr. Whiley's expert knowledge.
During the last three years of his life he was in indifferent health, and his death occurred on 19th September 1924, at the age of forty-eight.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1922.