1955-1956: Kenneth John Cook

Kenneth John Cook (b. 1896)

President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

Kenneth John Cook, O.B.E., was born in Somerset, England in 1896 and was educated at King Edward VI’s School in Bath. He entered the Swindon Locomotive Works of the Great Western Railway in September, 1912. His apprenticeship was interrupted by war service from 1915-19 in the Mechanical Transport Section of the RASC in France and with the British Salonika Force, and was not completed until 1921. During his apprenticeship he pursued his technical education at the Swindon Technical College, first at evening classes and later through the three years’ course, also interrupted 1914-15 and 1919-21, of the GWR Day Studentship Scheme, attaining first place throughout each year and in 1921 winning the GWR Chairman’s Prize.

He entered the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Drawing Office in 1920 and after a period in the Experimental Section was appointed Technical Inspector in the Locomotive Works in 1922, Assistant to Works Manager the following year, Assistant Works Manager in 1932 and Works Manager in 1937.

His period of managership of the Locomotive Works included the whole of World War II, throughout which he was also ARP Officer for the Swindon area of the GWR and Liaison Officer with Swindon Civic ARP Authority. This period brought with it great changes in production with the low priority accorded locomotive construction in the early years of the war, and consequent turnover to the manufacture of a vast array of stores for all branches of the fighting services, many of an experimental or development nature, and later, when locomotives were again adjudged to be of paramount importance, the swing back to this work. 

After 25 years in executive position in the Works, including ten years in charge, he was appointed Works Assistant to the Chief Mechanical Engineer in May 1947, Principal Assistant in January 1948, and on 1st January 1950 Mechanical and Electrical Engineer of the Western Region of British Railways. In July 1951 he was appointed Mechanical and Electrical Engineer of the Eastern and North-Eastern Regions with headquarters at Doncaster and accordingly transferred his activities to the eastern half of England; the title of the position being altered to that of Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer on 1st January 1955.

He was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours in 1946. He was elected a Member of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers in 1946 and in the following year became a Member of Council. In 1948 he was elected Vice-president. He was awarded the Institution of Locomotive Engineers Award in 1951 for his Paper “The Late G. J. Churchward’s Locomotive Development on the GWR” and the Institution of Electrical Engineers Paris (1881) Exhibition Premium jointly with a fellow author for a Paper on the electrification of the Manchester, Sheffield and Wath Line of the Eastern and London Midland Regions of British Railways.

Related Collections

ILE President's Gallery