David Carnegie (scientist)

Col. David Carnegie CBE, FRSE, MInstCE, MInstME, JP (15 February 1868 – 14 March 1949), was a British scientist, engineer and Liberal Party politician who worked for the Canadian government.

David Carnegie
Portrait of Carnegie taken by Edward Drummond Young (courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
Born(1868-02-15)15 February 1868
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died14 March 1949(1949-03-14) (aged 81)
Seasalter, Kent
Alma materGordon's College, Aberdeen
Royal College of Science, London
OccupationEngineer
Spouse(s)
Frances Ellen Lloyd
​
(m. 1896)​
Parent(s)David Carnegie
Margaret Bogue

Background

He was the son of David Carnegie and Margaret Bogue of Aberdeen. He was educated at Gordon's College, Aberdeen and at the Royal College of Science, London. In 1896, he married Frances Ellen Lloyd of Leicester,[1] and they had three sons.

Carnegie was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,[2][1] and was elected an Ordinary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1910.[1]

Engineering career

Before World War I, Carnegie worked at the Royal Laboratory of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich,[3][4] and later at Samuel Osborn & Company in Sheffield[5] and Carnegie Brothers and Company in London.[6] In 1916, he was described as "a consulting engineer of high standing".[7]

In September 1914 he was appointed as Ordnance Adviser to the Shell Committee in Canada, on which he also sat as a member.[8] When the Committee was replaced by the Imperial Munitions Board in December 1915, he was appointed as one of its members,[9] and continued to serve as such until 1919.[1] In 1915 he was appointed by the Canadian Government to chair a Commission to inquire into the feasibility of refining zinc and copper in Canada,[10] and he also conducted an inquiry into what coke oven capacity existed in Canada for the production of toluol (a key component of trinitrotoluene).[10] He was Chairman of the Inventions Committee in Canada. He was appointed an Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Canadian Militia in 1915,[2][11] and became an Honorary Colonel in 1916, on his appointment as Consulting Technical Ordnance Adviser to the Department of Militia and Defence.[12]

Public service

At the end of the War he returned to the UK and settled at Seasalter in Whitstable, Kent,[13] but returned in 1919 as a delegate to the National Industrial Conference in Ottawa, where he spoke about the UK experience in establishing the Whitley Councils.[14] In 1920 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[15]

In 1922 he was appointed to substitute for Minister of Labour James Murdock at that year's meetings of the International Labour Conference.[16] He was a Canadian employers' representative to the International Labour Organization who was also named by the ILO to sit on the Temporary Mixed Commission for the Reduction of Armaments at the League of Nations from 1921–24.

Carnegie took a particular interest in international affairs through the League of Nations Union which was formed in 1918. In 1925 he was elected a Member of its Executive Committee, on which he remained for the next nine years. He was also interested in serving the local community and was a Justice of the peace.[2]

Political career

He was the Liberal candidate for the Canterbury division of Kent—in which his Whitstable residence was located—at the 1924 General Election. It was a safe Unionist seat that had not elected a Liberal since 1868.

1924 General Election: Canterbury[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Ronald McNeill 16,693 70.3 +11.9
Liberal David Carnegie 7,061 29.7 −11.9
Majority 9,632 40.6 +23.8
Turnout 23,754 65.9 +9.4
Registered electors 36,045
Unionist hold Swing +11.9

In November 1927 he was again Liberal candidate for the 1927 Canterbury by-election.

1927 Canterbury by-election[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist William Wayland 13,657 57.3 -13.0
Liberal David Carnegie 10,175 42.7 +13.0
Majority 3,482 14.6 -26.0
Turnout 23,832 60.8 -5.1
Unionist hold Swing -13.0

He was Liberal candidate for the third time at Canterbury for the 1929 General Election.

1929 General Election: Canterbury[17]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist William Wayland 19,181 56.7 -0.6
Liberal David Carnegie 9,937 29.4 -13.3
Labour P S Eastman 4,703 13.9 n/a
Majority 9,244 27.3 +12.7
Turnout 33,821 68.3
Unionist hold Swing +6.3

He did not stand for parliament again.[17]

Bibliography

He published a number of works:[2]

  • Carnegie, David; Gladwyn, Sidney C. (1920). Liquid steel, its manufacture and cost. London: Longmans, Green and Co. OCLC 39774590.
  • Carnegie, David (1920). Can Church and Industry Unite?. London: Marshall Bros. OCLC 150594483.
  • — (1925). The History of Munitions Supply in Canada 1914-1918. London: Longmans, Green and Co. OCLC 4673665.
  • The Arms Industry, 1936
  • — (1937). The steel sanction: armaments and raw materials - address delivered on 26th October, 1937, to the Adam Smith Club, London. London: Adam Smith Club. OCLC 931242626.
  • World Economics and Peace, 1939
  • The International Labour Organization in World Affairs, 1943
  • — (1945). Armaments with Security Explained. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. OCLC 236109712.

Further reading

References
  1. Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783-2002 (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. 2006. p. 165. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  2. "CARNEGIE, Col David". Who Was Who, 1920–2007 (OUP Online ed.). A & C Black. 2012.
  3. Proceedings - Institution of Mechanical Engineers: 1893, Parts 3-4. Westminster: Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 1893. p. xxi.
  4. List of Members, February 1901. Westminster: Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 1901. p. 20.
  5. List of Members, 1st March 1907. Westminster: Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 1907. p. 22.
  6. List of Members, 2nd March 1914. Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 1914. p. 22.
  7. Meredith, William; Duff, Lyman Poore (1916). Royal Commission on Shell Contracts (PDF). Ottawa: King's Printer. p. 5.
  8. Vaughan 1919, p. 3.
  9. Vaughan 1919, p. 43.
  10. Vaughan 1919, p. 35.
  11. "Memoranda". Canada Gazette. 48 (41): 3170. 10 April 1915.
  12. "Memorandum". Canada Gazette. 50 (2): 85. 8 July 1916.
  13. List of Members, 1st May 1922. Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 1922. p. 27.
  14. Carnegie, David (15 September 1919). "Address of Col. D. Carnegie". National Industrial Conference, Ottawa, 15–20 September 1919: Official Report of Proceedings and Discussions. National Industrial Conference. Ottawa: King's Printer. pp. 18–23.
  15. "Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood". The Edinburgh Gazette. No. 13582. 1 April 1920. p. 899.
  16. Results: Orders-in-Council for "Carnegie"
  17. Craig, F.W.S., ed. (1949). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications.
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