Henry Lewis Guy, 1887-1956

Abstract

Sir Henry Lewis Guy was born at Penarth, near Cardiff, on 18 June 1887, and died on 20 July 1956, aged 69 years. He began his career as a pupil of the late T. Hurry Riches, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Taff Vale Railway Company, in 1903. Studying at the Technical School, he obtained a scholarship to the University of Wales and Monmouthshire and for three years he studied under Professor A. C. Elliott, who was the head of the Engineering Department. Guy took a triple course of Mechanical, Civil and Electrical Engineering and he obtained the University Diploma in all three branches, which was a feat indicative of his diligence and capacity for study. In his early days, he concentrated so much on technology that he did not matriculate and this prevented him from taking the University of Wales degree of engineering. This was made good in later years when he was honoured with a Doctor of Science degree. Guy was one of the outstanding engineering students at Cardiff. Each year he carried off many of the high prize awards. He was a deep thinker and absorbed in technical progress and although attracted to locomotive engineering he realized, even as a student, that the steam locomotive and even reciprocating engines did not offer a great future for more than a limited number of mechanical engineers and even as a student he made up his mind that the prime mover of the future was the steam turbine.