John Wykeham Jacomb-Hood

John Wykeham Jacomb-HoodEfn|His family name has sometimes been left unhyphenated as Jacomb Hood'''. His father was Robert Jacomb-Hood, himself a prominent railway engineer and the Resident Engineer and later a director of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. His mother died in 1869 and his father in 1900.

His grandfather, born Robert Jacomb, had inherited an estate at Bardon Hall from a cousin, and changed his surname to "Jacomb-Hood" as a condition of the inheritance. His father sold the estate on 13 June 1864 when he was aged . He was educated at Tonbridge School in 1872–75 alongside his elder brother George Percy Jacomb-Hood and then at the Crystal Palace Engineering School.

Career

1877–1900: Early career His career began in 1877 when he was sent to work for William Jacomb, the Chief Engineer to the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), where he would work for the rest of his life.

Between 1880 and 1883 he was sent to work in the Central District under the supervision of the District Engineer. On 2 December 1884, Jacomb-Hood was elected an associate member to the Institution of Civil Engineers. with a salary of £250, By the time he was promoted to this role, his salary was £600, and by 1903 the technology had been expanded northwards on the South West Main Line to Andover.

1901–1914: Tenure as Chief Engineer

On 1 March 1901, his offices were at London Waterloo railway station. The LSWR were able to afford his suggestions for electrification but chose to pursue other ventures, such as the purchase of the Waterloo and City Railway, now the Waterloo & City line of the London Underground. In 1909 his salary was once again raised, this time to £1800, The Concrete Society mentioned this as one of the possible first uses of precast concrete in the United Kingdom. From 1907–1910, he sat on the council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. The final time his salary was raised before his death was in January 1912, when it was increased to £2000, After Jacomb-Hood became Chief Engineer, he became responsible for the works, described in his 1914 obituary as his most important, and was sent to the United States to look at their terminus stations for inspiration. Jacomb-Hood presented a design of 23 platforms, a large concourse, and a glass and steel roof for the trainshed which was designed to run perpendicular to the platforms. However, one section of old roof was kept and thus the final station had two fewer platforms. The decorative façade and offices of the main station were designed by J.R. Scott, whose architecture contrasted with the practical nature of Jacomb-Hood's design for the layout. He was also a member of the Church Union and the chairman of the branch for Kingston and Surbiton in South London. Dr David Turner argued in his PhD thesis that Jacomb-Hood's tenure as a senior manager at the LSWR was markedly different than that of others who had risen through the ranks of the company, because he made a genuine attempt to improve its practices and financial efficiency. In October–December 1892 he had a child named Mary Deane Jacomb-Hood; as of the 1911 census, the last before his death, he had had no other children, and was living with his wife and 18-year-old daughter at 27 Denmark Avenue, Wimbledon, London. On 6 March 1914, he went out riding to meet the fox hunters in Dulverton, but was found dead on Hawkridge Common; he was aged 55, and his death was attributed to heart failure. which is worth £ in .