Reginald Sankey Owen
Reginald Sankey Owen (1879-1951)
1952 Obituary [1]
"REGINALD SANKEY OWEN was well-known as a motor expert in the Manchester area, where he was in practice for thirty years as a consulting automobile engineer. He was educated at Wigan Grammar School and Southport Technical School. After several years of experimental work on his own account in connection with motor construction he built a workshop and garage to carry out further experimental work. In 1910 he entered into partnership with Mr. Middlemiss, M.I.A.E., and continued to practise in Manchester until December 1916 when he joined the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate at Birmingham as an assistant and was granted the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. Later he was transferred to Manchester to take charge of the Lancashire District with the rank of captain, his duties being subsequently extended to cover the whole of the north of England. On the conclusion of hostilities Mr. Owen resumed his practice and continued to act as consultant and assessor to a number of the leading insurance companies. In addition his services were retained by the Corporation of Manchester as motor expert to the Watch Committee. He was the inventor of improvements in connexion with motor lamps and direction indicators. He was awarded first prize for the best amateur performance in the Manchester Automobile Club reliability run in 1911, and second prize in 1912. After his retirement in 1939 Mr. Owen went to live at Deganwy, North Wales, where his death occurred on 27th March 1951 in his seventy-second year. He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers in 1915 and was transferred to Membership in 1918."