Francis Oliver Beckett
Francis Oliver Beckett (1868-1951) of the Vulcan Boiler and General Insurance Company, Ltd.
1952 Obituary [1]
"FRANCIS OLIVER BECKETT spent nearly the whole of his professional career in the service of the Vulcan Boiler and General Insurance Company, Ltd. He received his general education at King Williams College, Isle of Man, and his technical training in the South Kensington Science and Art Departments, where he gained the Queen's Prize for machine design and the Silver Medal for steam and applied mechanics. His apprenticeship was served in the dynamo works of Siemens Brothers, Charlton, from 1883 to 1886, and in the engineering branch of the Woolwich Arsenal from 1886 to 1890. He then went to sea as a marine engineer, and in 1895 as chief engineer obtained his Board of Trade first-class certificate. After serving the Rumanian Government as chief marine engineer for three years, he joined the staff of the Vulcan Boiler and General Insurance Co, Manchester, and in 1900 was appointed engineer surveyor for the county of Lincolnshire. From 1911 until his retirement he was in charge of a London district. Mr. Beckett, whose death in his eighty-third year occurred on 18th April 1951, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1920."