Ashton Marler Heath (1859-1922)
of the London and South Western Railway, Locomotive Department, Nine Elms, London, S.W.
1922 Obituary [1]
ASHTON MAHLER HEATH was born in Manchester in 1859 and was educated at the Grammar School of that city.
He received his engineering training at the locomotive works of Messrs. Sharp, Stewart and Co.
On the completion of his workshop training he was appointed an assistant under the locomotive superintendent of the London and South Western Railway, which position he held for five years, when in 1887 he became an Inspector under Sir A. M. Rendel, K.C.I.E., and later Chief Assistant Engineer to Mr. John Carruthers, consulting engineer to the West Australian and New Zealand Government Railways.
In 1900 he received the appointment of Head of the Engineering and Works Department of the Office of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and on the formation of an Engineering Inspection Department he was appointed Chief Inspecting Engineer and Head of the new department which he had initiated and organized in 1904. He was promoted to be Chief Engineer in 1921, and retired from the Service in February 1922.
His death took place on the 21st October 1922, in his sixty-fourth year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1898; he was also a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Locomotive Engineers.
He served on many Technical Committees, notably on those of the British Engineering Standards Association.