"YOUNG MAN'S CHEEK"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23618, 30 March 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

"YOUNG MAN'S CHEEK"

Queen Victoria Punched His Shoulder

pOLONEL ROOKES EVELYN BELL CROMPTON, who was knoWn as the "Father of the Electrical Industry," who once denied that he was slapped by Queen Victoria, and who, in the last war, was engaged in the design of tanks, died last month at his home, Azerley Chase, near Ripon, Yorkshire. He was 94. Colonel Crompton was responsible for the first installation of electric lightcat Buckingham Palace, Holyrood Palace and Windsor Castle.

gest contracts, including the installation of electricity in the London .Mansion House, the Law Courts—at that time the largest installation in the world —and Victoria station. He introduced electric light to part of Vienna, including the Imperial Theatre. He took out a corps of electrical engineers to the Boer War, and for his work was thanked by Lord Roberts and awarded tine C.B. Colonel Crompton founded the firm of Messrs. Cromptou-Parkinson in 1878, and was a member of the board of directors until his death. He received a severe shock in November last by tlie death of his wife. Mrs. Crompton was 92, and their married partnership had lasted 68 years.

He was known as the man who was slapped by Queen Victoria, but in 1935, when he celebrated his 90th birthday, he denied that the story was true. .."The Queen never slapped me at all." he said. "She only punched me on the shoulder to point out that she disagreed with everything I was doing about electric lighting at that time. But the very next day she agreed with everything. She was a wonderful woman." Subsequently, according to Colonel Crompton, the Queen "made electric lighting all the fashion." Design for "Landships" 41 a ,dinner in his honour in 1931, Colonel Crompton said: "It happened in 'Bl or 'B2, when I introduced into Windsor Castle the type of lighting which you see in this room to-day. Her Majesty said she had never seen anything like it before. "But when other people admired the light she was very fair about it. When someone wanted to introduce me later. Queen Victoria waved me aside with the; remark: 'This young man had the cheek to ha\-e his own way, and his own way happened to be right!' " In the last war Colonel Crompton was instructed hy Mr. Winston Churchill to inquire into the possibility of Jandships, and by March, 1915, the design was sufficiently advanced for Mr. Churchill to sanction the construction of 12 landships. After alteration the tanks of the last war were born of the design. I,t was in the 'eighties that Colonel Crompton undertook some of his big-