Eimer 1429, BHM 2311.
47mm. By J.S & A.B Wyon.
Obverse with bust of George Stephenson, reverse showing view of a locomotive. Edge inscribed 'William Frank Pettigrew. M Inst C.B. Session 1895-96'.
Good Extremely Fine and rare.
A gold version of this medal hammered at £3,200 in a DNW sale 08/04/20 (lot 421).
William Frank Pettigrew (1858-1942) entered the works of the Great Eastern Railway at Stratford as a pupil under the late Mr. William Adams and subsequently served under the late Mr. Massey Bromley, Mr. T. W. Worsdell, and Mr. James Holden. In 1882 he was appointed assistant manager of the Stratford works and four years later joined the London and South Western Railway and served under his first chief, Mr. Adams, as works manager at Nine Elms. In 1897 he became the chief mechanical engineer of the Furness Railway and held that position until his retirement in 1918. Mr. Pettigrew contributed to the "Proceedings" of the Institutions of Civil and Mechanical Engineers, and for his paper on "Trials of an Express Locomotive," read jointly with Mr. Adams before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1899, he received the Stephenson Modal and a Telford Premium.
During the war of 1914-18 he was a member of the Committee of Railways in the North-West of England for assisting in munition production and was also chairman of the Area Board Transport Committee for that district. Mr. Pettigrew was the author of a paper read before members of the Institution in 1901, "History of the Furness Railway Locomotives". He was also the author of several other papers presented before technical societies. He acted as reporter on "Automatic Couplers" at the International Railway Congress held at Washington in 1905. His famous textbook, "A Manual of Locomotive Engineering", was first published in 1899 and was for several years regarded as a standard work on the subject.
Mr. Pettigrew's death occurred at Redhill, Surrey, on 22nd January 1942.