Leonard Victor Odendaal
Leonard Victor Odendaal (c1911-1951)
1953 Obituary [1]
LEONARD VICTOR ODENDAAL who died on 25th February 1951 at the early age of forty, spent the whole of his brief professional career in the service of the South African Railways, including his apprenticeship from 1927 to 1932.
During the next eight years he held a series of short appointments as improver, turner and machinist, and junior draughtsman in the mechanical engineer's office at Cape Town and as draughtsman in the locomotive drawing office at Pretoria. For brief periods he was inspector of materials at Johannesburg and draughtsman in the technical development section of the Union Defence Force at headquarters, where he was concerned with the design of vehicles.
In 1940 he was granted a commission as a pilot in the South African Air Force with the rank of captain.
Mr. Odendaal was elected a Graduate of the Institution in 1935 and transferred to Associate Membership ten years later.
On the termination of the 1939-45 war he returned to the service of the South African Railways and in 1950 was under the mechanical engineer at Uitenhage, Cape Province.