Herbert Broadbent

BROADBENT, Herbert, MICE AMIMechE MWAIE (1879-1945)

Born in England in 1879 at Ashton‐under-Lyme, the son of barrister William Bradley. He was educated in London and served an apprenticeship with Scott and Hodgson in Guide Bridge. He erected some plant in Portugal, and then joined Messrs J H Holmes and Company of Newcastle and London.

Broadbent was sent to Western Australia in 1896 by Messrs J H Holmes and Co to erect an electric power plant for the Perth Gas Company. He remained as Manager of the Electrical Department of the Perth Gas Company following commissioning of the plant.

On April 28, 1904 he married Ethel Anne Wigglesworth in Perth.

He gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the Collie Coalfield in 1905 and joined the staff of Perth City Council when they acquired the gas electrical systems and plant in 1912. He left for England in 1915 and was succeeded by Claude Crocker. His initial work in England was erecting an electrical power plant for Kynochs Ltd. In November 1915 he was appointed an inspector of munitions for the British War Office.

In 1919 he returned to Perth and worked as a consulting engineer. By 1924 he had moved with his wife and two sons to St Kilda, Melbourne where he died on May 18, 1945.

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References:
'RSC Perth Electric Tramways Lighting and Power Bill' V&P WA 1900 A11;
‘RSC Cottesloe, Buckland Hill …Electric Lighting and Power (private) Bill' V&P WA1900 A12;
'RRC Collie Coalfield' V&P WA 1905, 9;
Inquirer and Commercial News, 9.7.1907, p11;
CWA 1, p546;
Comm Eng 1 (4) 1913, pp121 2;
WAPD 1915, p1145;
Daily News, 20.11.1919, p5.