David Warwick Draper FIET, February 1936 - October 2023

A Rugbeian through and through, David was born, lived, worked, and died in Rugby. He was a proud old boy of Rugby School.

David graduated in 1957 with an honours degree in Electrical Power Engineering from Imperial College and then started a Graduate Apprenticeship with British Thomson-Houston (BTH) in Rugby.

He specialised in steel and aluminium cold strip mills rising to the position of Chief Engineer of Industrial Applications in 1971. During this time, he commissioned a number of strip mills both domestically and overseas including the Comalco Aluminium Cold Mill in Sydney, Australia.

Ultimately, GEC took over BTH and its predecessor companies, and as a result of the reorganisation David took over responsibility for a new project which was an irrigation scheme in Romania. This covered a vast area and consisted of pumping water from the River Danube up three levels via a series of canals

David worked for 40 years with BTH/AEI/GEC before finally retiring in 1998.

In his professional life, David had a long association with the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE – then becoming IET) and chaired the local Southeast Midland Centre. He rose to become a Fellow of the IEE and had the honour of sitting on the London Council. Until very recently he was still involved with the Rugby Retired Engineers group, including sitting on the organising committee.

Outside of work he was a keen sailor, and he also had a passion for railways, supporting the 229 club that undertook the re-streamlining of the Stanier pacific locomotive - the Duchess of Hamilton - which he had previously driven on his 60th birthday as a present from his family.

When in retirement he busied himself building a 1" to the foot Ruston Traction Engine. This was followed by a full-size steam car based on the Locomobile of America which he drove at many shows along with his wife Beryl.

David leaves three sons Paul, Mark, and John all of whom have followed various branches of engineering in no small measure due to his influence.