Kathleen Mary Cook
Kathleen Mary Cook | |
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Born | 25 August 1910 Wembley |
Died | 1971 |
Citizenship | British |
Education | La Convent of the Sainte Union des Sacres Coeurs, North London |
Occupation | Mechnical Engineer |
Employer | Apprentice at Hercules Engineering Company; Director of Hercules Aircraft Construction Co. Ltd; Founder member of Universal Equipment Co. Ltd; Owner of Kainder Ltd; Wilmer Engineering Co Ltd |
Organization | Women's Engineering Society |
Spouse(s) | Dennis Goodwin |
Kathleen Mary Cook (1910–1971) was a mechanical engineer who was president of the Women's Engineering Society from 1955–1956.[1][2] Her father, , who was also a mechanical engineer, worked with the earliest aeroplane engines.[3]
Education[]
Cook was educated at La Convent of the Sainte Union des Sacres Coeurs in North London and in Paris.[3] In 1928 she became an apprentice at , London, her father's company,[4] where she stayed for 7 years.[2]
Career[]
During the Second World War, Cook and three of her brothers developed and ran a factory in Northholt, where they developed gun breech mechanisms.[3][4] In 1942 Cook became director of ,[5] and was a founder member of , which was established in 1945.[3] She invented and patented a mobile bed called the Kainder Mobile Bed and set up a company called Kainder Ltd in 1949.[3][2][6] In 1951 she joined Wilman Engineering Co. Ltd, a small company making electronic equipment and automatic control units.[7] She worked as chief mechanical engineer and chairman of the company,[3] and helped it to survive financial difficulties.[2][8] After raising capital, she was able to buy out her partners in the company and begin modernisation.[4]
In 1962, she was one of only ten female engineers who were entitled to designate themselves as 'Chartered Mechanical Engineer'.[3]
Professional memberships[]
Cook was a fellow of the Institute of Production Engineering.[8][9] She became a student member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,[7] after being introduced by Verena Holmes who also proposed her as a full member many years later.[10] Cook was only the second woman, following Holmes, to hold full membership since it was set up in 1847.[3] She was also the first female fellow of the Institute of British Foundrymen, and a member of the and the Royal Commonwealth Society.[3]
Cook joined the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) in 1931.[4] She joined the Council in 1936,[11][5] on which she served for over 25 years.[3] She became Vice-President in 1951 and was President from 1955-56.[2][12][13] In her 1955 presidential address she talked about her work as a mechanical engineer in production and how an engineering plant is run.[14]
She wrote a number of articles for the WES journal called The Woman Engineer, including one in 1935 reporting on a Shipping Engineering and Machinery Exhibition.[15] She also produced a report on the inauguration of the Marchwood Power Station at which Princess Margaret officiated.[16] She was appointed advertising manager of The Woman Engineer in 1953.[9]
Personal life[]
Kathleen Cook married D H I Goodwin, a marine engineer, in 1957.[3]
She died in 1971 following a long illness.[2]
References[]
- ^ "Kathleen Mary Cook". Grace's Guide to Briish Industrial History.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f "75: Kathleen Cook". Magnificent Women. 2019.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Mrs. D.I.H. Goodwin M.I.Mech.E." The Woman Engineer. 9:6: 10. 1962.
- ^ a b c d "Remembering Kathleen Mary Cook". The Woman Engineer. 11:3: 3–4. 1971.
- ^ a b "Annual General Meeting: News of Members". The Woman Engineer. 5:16: 2. 1943.
- ^ "News of Members". The Woman Engineer. 6:16: 295. 1949.
- ^ a b "News of Members". The Woman Engineer. 8:1: 22. 1956.
- ^ a b "News of Members". The Woman Engineer. 7:12: 15. 1954.
- ^ a b "Editorial". The Woman Engineer. 7:8: 1. 1953.
- ^ "Verena - Through Eyes opf ther friends". The Woman Engineer. 9:13: 2.
- ^ "The Fourteenth Annual Conference". The Woman Engineer. 4:8: 113. 1935.
- ^ "From the President - Greetings". The Woman Engineer. 11:15: 1. 1954.
- ^ "The 1954 W.E.S. Conference". The Woman Engineer. 7:15: 4. 1954.
- ^ "The 1955 W.E.S Presidential Address". The Woman Engineer. 7:19: 15–17. 1955.
- ^ "Shipping, Engineering and Machinery Exhibition". The Woman Engineer. 4:4: 50, 52. 1935.
- ^ "The Inauguration of Marchwood Power Station by Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret". The Woman Engineer. 8:6: 14–15. 1957.
- Women engineers
- 1910 births
- 1971 deaths
- British mechanical engineers
- Women's Engineering Society
- People from Hendon
- Presidents of the Women's Engineering Society
- Mechanical engineers