13: Dorothy May cridland

Engineer of the Week No. 13. Today we remember Past WES President Dorothy May Cridland on her 116th birthday.
Dorothy May Cridland Assoc.IMechE (15th February 1903 - 25th May 1987) was born in north London in 1903, her father being a chemist/pharmacist with his own business. On leaving school in the 1930s with apparently few prospects and not being from a wealthy family, she immediately got a junior administrative job with Leyland Motors Ltd. She remained with them until 1955 gradually acquiring more technical knowledge of their vehicles and rising through technical sales posts to become deputy to Leyland’s southern regional manager .

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From 1931-34 she took various courses at Kingston Technical college and the City of London College. In 1951 she was one of the earliest women to be elected as an Associate of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and went to work for them from 1955-63 as a technical editor, despite her lack of formal technical qualifications. She was the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) President in 1964, having been very active in WES since the 1940s and in 1978 she was made an Honorary WES member.She was also involved with various charities for young people and the elderly,was a Freewoman of the City of London, and life member of the Overseas League. She died in 1987 in Maidstone, Kent.