Magnificent Women
  • Home
  • Electric Dreams
  • All Electric House, Bristol
  • Top 100 Women
  • Engineer of the Week
    • EOTW - The Full List
  • The Women
  • Timeline
    • Banners
  • WES History
  • EAW
  • Teatowels For Sale
  • 50 Women in Engineering
  • Museum Trails
  • Waterloo Bridge
  • History Links
  • Blue Plaques
  • Virtual Blue Plaques
  • Career and Inspiration Links
  • Contact
  • Outreach
  • Photo Gallery
  • Bluestockings and Ladders
  • Data Privacy Page

75: Kathleen Cook

25/8/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
Engineer of the Week No. 75: Kathleen Mary Cook (Mrs D.I.H. Goodwin) AMIMechE, FIBF MIProdEng (25th August 1910 - 1971)
On her 109th birthday we remember Kathleen Cook mechanical engineer, entrepreneur and WES President.      
Kathleen Cook was born in London in 1910 and educated at La Convent of the Sainte Union des Sacres Coeurs, North London, followed by a 7 year apprenticeship in 1928 at Hercules Engineering Company, in North London. As far as we can tell she had no formal post-school technical education. Her father, initially a machine shop foreman in the automobile industry, became a director of this small general engineering and press tool company. During the Second World War she and her three brothers ran a factory in Northolt, making gun breech mechanisms. In her spare time she liked to volunteer as a mechanic at Brooklands race track. In 1942 she was appointed director of Hercules Aircraft Construction Co Ltd and in 1945 was a founder member of Universal Equipment Co Ltd. In 1949 she set up Kainder Ltd, to make her own invention, the Kainder Mobile Bed. In 1951 she joined Wilman Engineering Co Ltd, a small manufacturer of making electronic equipment and automatic control units, which was struggling financially and helped rescue it. She remarked that the very hard times in engineering she experienced during the depression when she was just starting her career, stood her in good stead when she took on and turned around various struggling firms in her later career. She married Dennis Goodwin, at this period, who was a director of Brentford Foundries, and George Spicer Ltd. She was a fellow of the Institute of Production Engineering and of the Institution of British Foundrymen (their first female fellow). She died in 1971 after a long illness.
Kathleen joined the Women’s Engineering Society in 1931 and was immediately energetically involved, joining the council in 1936, vice president in 1951 and president in 1955-6. She died in 1971 after a long illness.

2 Comments
Waffle Accessories link
7/6/2023 07:22:33 am

Greaat blog you have

Reply
Oliver Bryant
12/5/2024 11:52:31 pm

Hi Nina,
Are you related to Kath? She was my mum's aunt. An amazing lady. If you know anything more about her father my great grandfather Philip Victor Cook I'd be very happy to hear anything!

Thanks
Ollie
My mother Angela Cook is a pretty magnificent woman she is worth writing about. She was Kaths apprentice and decided to take her own path with interior architecture. She has worked all over the world. For very special people. If you get back to me I might be able to put you in touch with her before all her stories are lost for ever :)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Nina C Baker

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Electric Dreams
  • All Electric House, Bristol
  • Top 100 Women
  • Engineer of the Week
    • EOTW - The Full List
  • The Women
  • Timeline
    • Banners
  • WES History
  • EAW
  • Teatowels For Sale
  • 50 Women in Engineering
  • Museum Trails
  • Waterloo Bridge
  • History Links
  • Blue Plaques
  • Virtual Blue Plaques
  • Career and Inspiration Links
  • Contact
  • Outreach
  • Photo Gallery
  • Bluestockings and Ladders
  • Data Privacy Page