Richard Sennett
Inspector of Machinery Richard Sennett, F.R.S.N.A., Royal Navy (25 October, 1847 – 4 September, 1891) was an officer of the Royal Navy.
Life & Career
Sennett was appointed an Assistant Engineer, Second Class, on 27 August, 1867.[1] He studied at the School of Naval Architecture at South Kensington until 1870, and obtained a Whitworth Scholarship in 1869. Before he attended the school he had spent nearly five years in the Dockyards as an Engineer Student. During his three years at South Kensington he spent three successive summers in the dockyard.[2]
He was appointed an Assistant Engineer, First Class, on 3 September, 1870.[3]
He was promoted to the rank of Engineer on 21 September, 1872. On 1 January, 1873, he was appointed to Fisgard for temproary service at the Admiralty.[4]
On 25 April, 1883, Sennett was appointed to the Admiralty as Inspector of Machinery in the Controller's Department.[5] On 29 October, 1885, he was promoted to the rank of Inspector of Machinery. William Castle, promoted at the same time, was fourteen years his senior.[6] In 1886 Sennett became Acting Engineer-in-Chief of the Royal Navy at the very early age of thirty-nine, pending the retirement of Sir James White. He was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for three years from 1 May, 1887. He resigned on 5 May, 1889,[7] to join the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field at Lambeth[8] as Managing Director.[9] The reason for his departure from the Naval Service is not known, but he did not last long in his new position at Lambeth. Consumption ran through his family, and he fell ill in 1891. A trip to the Cape did not ameliorate his condition.[10] He died on 4 September, 1891, at Walton-on-Thames, aged forty-three.[11] In 1895, Sir William White described him as:
a man whose professional ability was beyond dispute, but whose courage and enterprise had often been misunderstood—who attempted great things, and did many great things, and who in some quarters had been spoken of as if, because he tried to go beyond precedent and experience, he was therefore a fanatic or a fool. Mr. Sennett was a man who by what he had done and dared had helped the cause of marine engineering in many ways, and in a manner that had yet to recognised.[12]
Bibliography
- "Deaths" (Deaths). The Times. Monday, 7 September, 1891. Issue 33423, col A, p. 1.
- Report of the Committee Appointed by The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Consider the Best Means of Securing the the Highest Mechanical Skill and Scientific Knowledge in the Management of the Various Engines of Her Majesty's Ships of War, and the Supply of Engineer Officers and Engine Room Artificers for Her Majesty's Navy [Cooper Key Committee.] London: Printed for H.M. Stationary Office. [C.–1647.] 1877.
- Brown, David K, RCNC (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860 — 1905. London: Chatham Publishing. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
- Smith, Engineer Captain Edgar C. (June 1971). "Richard Sennett, F.R.S.N.A. (1847-1891)". Journal of Naval Engineering 23 (2): pp. 418-421.
Service Record
- The National Archives. ADM 196/24.
| Naval Appointments | ||
| Preceded by James Wright |
Engineer-in-Chief 1886 – 1889 |
Succeeded by A. John Durston
|
Footnotes
- ↑ ADM 196/24. f. 473.
- ↑ Cooper Key Committee. p. 187.
- ↑ ADM 196/24. f. 473.
- ↑ ADM 196/24. f. 473.
- ↑ The Navy List (September, 1885). p. 255, p. 299.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 25525. p. 5026. 3 November, 1885.
- ↑ ADM 196/24. f. 473.
- ↑ Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects (1917). p. 230.
- ↑ "Naval Notes & News". Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle. Saturday, 12 September, 1891. Issue 5740, col E, p. 8.
- ↑ Smith. p. 421.
- ↑ "Deaths" (Deaths). The Times. Monday, 7 September, 1891. Issue 33423, col A, p. 1.
- ↑ Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. CXIX. pp. 80-81.
