1959-1960: Robert Alfred Smeddle

Robert Alfred Smeddle (b. 1899)

President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers

ILE Obituary:

The railway world, and indeed the world in general and this Institution in particular, is poorer for the loss of the well-loved Past-President, Robert Alfred Smeddle, M .I.Mech.E., M.I.Loco .E., who died on October 2nd 1964, after a long illness. He bore the last two years of pain with the fortitude and cheerfulness that we had learned to expect from this man with such an understanding and affectionate nature.

He was a railway locomotive engineer with the background of sound traditional training. He joined the former North Eastern Railway as a pupil in 1919 and after experience in the Running and Traffic Departments he was appointed Assistant Works Manager, Cowlairs, in 1925, and a few years later became Assistant Carriage & Wagon Works Manager at York. He came to London in 1929 as Deputy Carriage & Wagon Assistant, Kings Cross, and in 1931 returned to Cowlairs as Works Manager.

From 1936 to 1941 he was Locomotive Works Manager at Darlington, subsequently being appointed as Mechanical Engineer, Darlington. In 1949 he moved to the Southern Region as Deputy Mechanical & Electrical Engineer. His career culminated in his appointment to the Western Region in 1951 as Mechanical & Electrical Engineer and he subsequently assumed the title of Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineer in that Region.

It says much for his character and understanding of his fellow men that he quickly became accepted at Swindon, the railway citadel of the West, and was not treated as an intruder from other regions.

Mr. Smeddle was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1925 and transferred to Member in 1938. He was elected a Member of Council in 1944 and became a Vice-president in 1954; during his service as a Member of Council he served on the Membership Selection Committee, including a period as its Chairman, for twelve years. His services to this Institution culminated in his election as President in 1959 and it was during his year of office that, after a gap of nearly 25 years, the Institution again had a Summer Visit on the Continent, in this case to Germany. It was under his leadership that this visit proved so successful and indeed led to subsequent overseas visits.

Mr. Smeddle retired from his position as Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer in 1962 and was so unfortunately immediately struck down with a serious illness.

Alfred Smeddle will be remembered for the work which he did in the introduction of the diesel-hydraulic locomotive on to British Railways, but more especially he will be remembered as a man liked by all and with that desirable attribute that he was always approachable and sympathetic.

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ILE President's Gallery