1954 Bio Note [1]
Dr. Barwell commenced his training as a Premium Apprentice in the Locomotive Works of the Great Western Railway at Swindon in 1927 becoming a Student of the Institution in 1931.
He then studied at the City and Guilds College, South Kensington, and at the Technische Hochschule, Berlin-Charlottenburg. He was awarded a Whitworth Scholarship in 1933 and a Robert Blair Fellowship in 1936 during the tenure of which he studied mechanical engineering with particular reference to railway motive power practice in Europe and North America.
In 1939 he joined the staff of the National Physical Laboratory where he was engaged on research on bomb disposal, aircraft structures, plastics and finally lubrication.
In 1948 he was appointed Senior Principal Scientific Officer in the Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research where he is head of the division concerned with lubrication, wear and the mechanical engineering aspects of corrosion.
1973 Bio Note [2]
F. T. Barwell, WhSch, PhD (Lond), BSc (Eng), FICE, FIEE Fellow, received his practical training in the GWR at Swindon, studied at the City and Guilds College and University of London and the Technische Hochschule, Berlin-Charlottenburg. He received a Whitworth Scholarship in 1933 and a Robert Blair Fellowship in 1936. He joined the scientific staff of NPL in 1939 and in 1949 transferred to the Mechanical Engineering Research Organisation (now NEL) as Head of the Lubrication and Wear Division.
In 1958 he joined the staff of the British Transport Commission as Electric Traction Engineer (Research), subsequently becoming Director of Electrical Research, British Railways. in 1965. He was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University College of Swansea, where he is at present Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He acted as Director of the Swansea Tribology Centre for two years after its foundation. He chaired the Institution's Lubrication and Wear and Railway Engineering Groups, and won the Filtration Prize in 1955, the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal in 1961, the George Stephenson Prize in 1962 and 1972 and the James Clayton Prize in 1967.