1937-1938: Francis Richard Collins

Francis Richard Collins (1873-1957)

President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

ILE Obituary:

Lt.-Col. Francis Richard Collins, D. S. O., V.D., Officer, Legion d’honneur, whose death occurred on 19th October 1957 in his
85th year, was Chief Mechanical Engineer of South African Railways from 1922 until his retirement in 1929 and President of the Institution, 1937-1938.

Born in 1873 and educated at Almondbury Grammar School and Huddersfield Technical School, he served his time as a premium apprentice at Crewe. After drawing office experience he was appointed Locomotive Foreman and gained experience in various locomotive sheds on the former London and North Western Railway (LNWR).

Col. Collins served in the South African War of 1901-1902 with the Cheshire Regiment, was attached to the Royal Engineers and, later, to the Imperial Military Railways. Thereafter he was appointed Assistant Locomotive Superintendent, Bloemfontein, Central South African Railways, and, in 1903, District Locomotive Superintendent at that town, becoming Works Manager at Pretoria in the following year. He was appointed Superintendent, Mechanical and Motive Power, in 1908.

During the 1914-1918 war he commanded the South African Engineer Corps and was mentioned in dispatches. In 1916 he commanded the South African Railway Troops in France and was later appointed Assistant Director of Light Railways, 5th Army, was again mentioned in dispatches and awarded the D.S.O.; he was also made an Officer of the Legion of Honour.

After the war, returning to the South African Railways he visited Canada and the U.S.A. before coming to London in 1920 as Advisory Engineer to the High
Commissioner for the Union. He was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer of South African Railways in 1922, and retired in 1929.

He had been a Member since 1920.

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ILE President's Gallery