Joseph Clarke
Joseph Clarke (c1871-1941)
1941 Obituary [1]
Captain JOSEPH CLARKE, M.B.E., received his technical education at the Central Science Schools and at the Technical College and served his apprenticeship from 1887 to 1892 with Messrs. Hattersley and Davidson in Sheffield. He remained with that firm, acting as gas engine expert and later as assistant works manager until 1897, when he became shift engineer to the Metropolitan Electric Supply Company.
From 1902 to 1906 he was on the engineering staff of the British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and was engaged on steam turbine tests at Pittsburg, U.S.A., for six months. Subsequently he returned to London as guarantee engineer during the testing period of 8 steam turbines of 5,000 kW. at Chelsea and 3 of 3,500 kW. at Neasden. In 1908 he was appointed chief mechanical and electrical engineer to the Pacific Phosphate Company in Melbourne, and was responsible for all the firm's business in Nauru and Ocean islands in the Pacific. He specialized in phosphate mining, and in 1919 he commenced practice as a consulting engineer to the British Phosphate Commissioners, and to United Phosphates of Egypt.
At the time of his death which occurred on 29th January 1941, in his seventieth year, he was acting as consulting engineer to the Christmas Island Phosphate Company. Captain Clarke was elected a Member of the Institution in 1911 and was also a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He served in the Corps of Electrical Engineers in the South African War of 1899-1902; and in the war of 1914-18 he was Staff Captain in the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Department at the War Office, where he was engaged on the purchase of engineering equipment for the British Expeditionary Force; for his services he received the M.B.E.