Abstract
ON September 5 occurs the centenary of the birth of Major-General Charles Edmund Webber, who in 1871, with Colonel Sir Francis John Bolton (1831-87), was instrumental in founding the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, since 1889 the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Webber, who was the son of an Irish clergyman, passed through Woolwich Academy and in 1855 received a commission in the Royal Engineers. After service in India, he became an instructor in military surveying at Woolwich, and in 1866 was attached to the Prussian Army to report on engineering operations and military telegraphs. His knowledge of the latter led to his being lent to the British Post Office in connexion with the organization of the telegraph service, and it was while engaged on this service in 1871 that with Bolton he founded the Society of Telegraph Engineers, of which Sir William Siemens became the first president. Bolton was for some time the honorary secretary, while Webber was elected to the presidential chair in 1882. He had just previously, in 1879-80, been through the Zulu War, and in 1881 had served as British Commissioner at the Electrical Exhibition. In 1882 and 1884 he again saw active service, this time in Egypt, and in 1885 retired from the army with the rank of major-general. He was afterwards connected with several electricity supply undertakings and was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, being, it is said, the first military officer to qualify for election. He died at Margate on September 23, 1904.
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A Founder of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. Nature 142, 424 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142424a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142424a0