George Richard Webb
George Richard Webb ( -1922)
1923 Obituary [1]
GEORGE RICHARD WEBB, who died in London on the 30th November, 1922, after an operation, was the eldest son of the late Francis Hughes Webb, for many years Secretary of the Institution.
He received his early training in electrical matters at the old G.P.O. instrument factory in Gloucester-road, where he acquired a sound knowledge of the telegraph apparatus in use 40 years ago.
In 1888, at the age of 24, he was appointed assistant telegraph superintendent to the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company and went to Bombay, where he resided until shortly before his untimely death. He was promoted to be stores superintendent of the G.I.P. system some years ago, and in this post rendered admirable service, his uprightness of character and long experience of the technical side of railway work, together with his imperturbable good humour - which the climate of India never quenched - forming most valuable qualifications for the delicate work which falls to the lot of the stores manager of a great railway system.
During the European war Mr. Webb served on the Indian Munitions Committee, and his strenuous work in organizing the local supplies for the Mesopotamian campaigns was rewarded by his appointment to the Order of the British Empire.
Throughout his life he was an active Volunteer, having been a member of the Artists' Rifle Corps since 1880, and serving during the whole of his residence in India in the Volunteer regiment of the G.I.P. Railway Company, in which he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. His was a most lovable character ; and his sterling honesty, his unfailing good humour, his kind and generous disposition, and his single-minded devotion to whatever he might be engaged in at the time - work or play - endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. His death, at the comparatively early age of 58, was a severe blow to his many friends and to his relatives. He was twice married and left a widow and two children, a son and a daughter.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1889, and a Member in 1891.