Thomas Clarance Walcroft
Thomas Clarence Walcroft (c1872-1942)
1943 Obituary [1]
THOMAS CLARENCE WALCROFT, whose death occurred at Southampton on 25th August 1942, in his seventieth year, had an extremely varied and adventurous career, in the course of which he visited almost every part of the world, chiefly in connection with the erection and maintenance of printing press machinery. After receiving his education at Lucerne and in Paris he went to America in 1890 and studied for a year at Cooper's College, New York.
Returning to England in 1891, he served his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Essen, Ltd., mechanical engineers and printing press builders, London, from 1893 to 1897 and during the same period was a student at the Royal College of Science and the Polytechnic, Regent Street. He then served for a brief period as sixth, and then fifth, engineer in the Tantallon Castle of the Castle Line. His next employment was in the capacity of printing press expert for the Linotype Company of Broadheath, Cheshire, which entailed extensive travel on the Continent and responsibility for the erection of printing plants and other machinery.
In 1903 he went to the East and for three years was chief engineer to The Times of India, in the course of which he erected the entire plant. After an interlude, during which he toured round the world conducting negotiations for an engineering concern, he returned to India, and from 1908 until 1913 he was engineer and assistant works manager of The Statesman, Bombay. During the war of 1914-18 he obtained a commission in the 1st King George's Own Sappers and Miners, and was on active service in India, Mesopotamia, and Afghanistan.
On demobilization he joined Southern Newspapers, Ltd., Southampton, with whom he was associated as superintendent engineer for over twenty years until his retirement. Mr. Walcroft was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1913.