Sir Boverton Redwood caricatured by SpyinVanity Fair (UK) in 1908A diagram of petroleum equipment by Boverton RedwoodA diagram by Boverton Redwood
Sir Thomas Boverton RedwoodFRSE FIC FCS FGS FRSA MIME (1846–1919) was a 19th-century British chemical engineer remembered as a pioneer of the petroleum industry. An early car-collector and enthusiast, he was also one of the first to investigate alcohol as a fuel.[1]
He sat on (and often chaired) multiple government committees, including the British Science Guild, the Home Office Committee on Acetylene Generators. He was chairman of the Gas Traction Committee. He was vice president of the Society of Chemical Industries. He was president of the Institute of Petroleum Technologists 1914 to 1916.[2] He was vice president of the Illuminating Engineering Society.
He was born in London on 26 April 1846, the eldest of eight children to Prof Theophilus Redwood (1806-1892), originally from Boverton in South Wales, and his wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Morson, daughter of T M R Morson who owned a London pharmaceutical firm. He studied chemistry at University College, London gaining a doctorate (DSc with Honours).[3]
In 1895 he was co-founder of the Self-Propelled Traffic Association and in 1897 he was a co-founder of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC).
In 1912 he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines.[5] In the First World War he served on several committees ranging from petrol supplies, and oil supplies to the navy to the use of "liquid fire" (napalm) for trench warfare.
In later life he lived at 119 Piccadilly in central London. He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1905 and further was created Baronet of Marylebone Road by King George V in 1911.[6]
He died in London following a short illness on 4 June 1919.[7]
His first car was a French Bolide [fr] then he acquired a Daimler in 1897. The Daimler was custom-built in Coventry to his own specification, being more powerful than average. He also had a De Dion-BoutonVoiturette.[8]
Works by or about Thomas Boverton RedwoodatWikisource
