Frank Adamson West (1867-1901)
Deputy locomotive Superintendent of Egyptian Railway Administration.
Son of Arthur Anderson West.
Died 1901 aged 34.[1]
1901 Obituary [2]
FRANE ADAMSON WEST, born. on the 18th January, 1867, was the second surviving son of Mr. Arthur Anderson West, Civil Engineer.
At the age of 19 he was apprenticed to Messrs. De Winton & Co., engineers, of Carnarvon, for three years, during which time he obtained experience of quarry machinery, marine and stationary engines, and small locomotives.
In 1889 he was engaged by the Upper Assam Tea Company as Assistant Engineer, and subsequently as Engineer and Assistant Manager of their Maijan Estate in Upper Assam, in charge of the erection and maintenance of factory buildings and machinery, some miles of light railway, manufacture and repairs of rolling stock, permanent way and works, and tea manufacture.
In November, 1892, he was appointed by the same Company Engineer and Manager of their Borborooah Division, in sole charge of works, machinery, tea-plantation and manufacture, employing 1,100 workpeople, until January, 1894, when repeated attacks of fever obliged him to leave India.
In October, 1894, Mr. West entered the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway as Improver, under Mr. William Dean, the Chief Superintendent of the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Department.
In November, 1895, he was transferred to the Drawing Office of the Great Western Railway at Swindon as a Draughtsman, where he continued for four years.
In February, 1897, he read a Paper before the Junior Engineering Society at Swindon on "Machinery and Light Railways on Indian Tea-Gardens," which was published in the following July.
In October, 1899, he was engaged by the Administration of the Egyptian Railways as Assistant to Mr. F. H. Trevithick, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, at Cairo, in charge of the working locomotive and rolling stock.
He obtained a short leave of absence in the summer of 1901. An attack of fever hastened his departure, and a few days after his arrival in England he had another attack, under which he sank and died on the 5th June, 1901, in the 35th year of his age.
Mr. West was a hard and steady worker, a good organiser, and highly esteemed and liked by all with whom he was associated during his short career.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 4th February, 1896.