DEATH IN LONDON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23192, 11 November 1938, Page 9

DEATH IN LONDON

AUCKLAND INVENTOR EVE OF DEPARTURE FOOD POISONING POSSIBLE LONDON, Nov. 9 An Auckland man, Mr. G. H. McLeod, aged 52, died in hospital on the eve of his departure for home. The inquest was adjourned. It is suggested that death was due to food poisoning. Mr. McLeod was the inventor of a new propeller, which was satisfactorily tested in England. He named his invention the Maymac. Born at Whangarei Heads, the late Mr. George Harnett MacLeiod, who lived at 33 Jubilee Avenue, Devonport, served his apprenticeship with the engineering firm of George Fraser and Sons, Stanley Street, He later joined the Chelsea Sugar Company, and after two years there qualified for the position of marine engineer, in which capacity he made many overseas voyages. Mr. McLeod served in the Great War in the Navy and was an EngineerLieutenant on H.M.S. Avenger when she was torpedoed. Mr- McLeod suffered

a leg injury when struck by a piece of the torpedo and he had always suffered from the wound. Before his injury he won many rowing trophies as a member of the West End Rowing Club. For some years after the war Mr. McLeod was a member of the marine departmental staff of the Vacuum Oil Company. After research in connection with his invention a company, Propellers, Limited, was founded. Last May be left for England to have the propeller tested at the National Physical Laboratories in London. The invention was named Maymac after his wife and himself. Of revolutionary design the propeller was intended for speedboats, and it received an 'excellent reception in Britain, where the tests were successful. The Navy was keenly' interested in the invention and Sir Malcolm Campbell, the British speedboat racer, offered to experiment with it. When his Auckland relatives last heard from Mr. McLeod a few weeks ago he was in good health, and was expected to leave for the Dominion by the Strathnaver. Mr. McLeod is survived by his wife and daughter.