OBITUARY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27472, 5 October 1954, Page 14

OBITUARY

MR A. L. GATLAND (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 4. Mr A. L. Gatland, formerly chief superintending engineer for the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd., died at Auckland today, aged 67. Mr Gatland was born at Onehunga. At the end of-his engineering apprenticeship in 1905 he left for England in the old Tongariro, and joined the engineering staff of William Denny and Company, of Dumbarton,. Scotland, where he remained for several years. He first went to sea as third engineer of the steamer Bellena, trading from Britain to South America. Later he joined the Union Company’s Niagara on her maiden voyage from Britain in 1912, and subsequently served in several of the company’s vessels. He was serving in the Aotearoa when, as the armed merchant cruiser Avenger, she was torpedoed in Scapa Flow In June, 1917. After this he served for a period in a . Royal Naval College in Britain. After the First World War he rejoined the company as second engineer, and rose to chief engineer of the motor-vessel Aorangi. He returned to England in 1931 to supervise the construction of the inter-island ferry Rangatira, and at that time was considered a leading authority on turbo-electric propulsion. He was appointed assistant superintending engineer of the Union Company in 1935, and the chief superintending engineer in 1946, a position he held until his retirement in March last year. After retiring he moved his home from Wellington back to Onehunga.

MR T. E. ELLIOTT

Mr Thomas Elkin Elliott, who was killed in an accident at Weedons on Saturday, was managing director of T. E. Elliott and .JJd., and of Glenmore Quarries, Ltd. Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, Mr Elliott came to New Zealand as a youth and lived for a number of years in th? Loburn and Rangiora districts where he was associated with the late Mr W. Carson Wilson. At the time of his death he had been in the contracting business in Christchurch for about years. He began the business in a small way but by hard work built it up into a large organisation—one of the biggest earth-moving and cartage contracting businesses in Canterbury. Well-known in racing and trotting circles, Mr Elliott had a number of gallopers, the best known being Jolly Sailor, which won the Winter Cup at Riccarton in 1951. Mr Elliott was a member of the Masonic and Orange Lodges. He is survived by his wife.