John (Jack) Parr
PARR, John (Jack) BSc MICE MIEAust (1873-1959)
John Parr was born in Timaru, New Zealand on July 29, 1873 the son of flour miller and Timaru Harbour foreman, William Parr, and his wife Isabella Patterson Parr nee Heuchan. He studied engineering at the University of New Zealand. Two of his brothers (William and Roger) were also engineers.
On July 4, 1898 Parr joined the Public Works Department in Western Australia working on the design of the Goldfields Pipeline including looking at water hammer and surge.
John Parr returned to New Zealand to marry Kate Isabella Isherwood at Christchurch on January 15, 1901. They had five children between 1902 and 1913, four daughters and a son, all born in Western Australia. His son, John William Parr, was also an engineer.
From 1904 to 1924, Parr was District Engineer, Northam, and acted as Engineer Metropolitan Water Supplies between 1916 and 1919, when F W Lawson was away in WWI with the AIF.
In 1907, Parr was the Secretary to a Board, chaired by W C Reynoldson, reporting on Metropolitan Water Supplies. In 1909, he was the Secretary to the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewerage Works. In 1917 Parr and Percy O’Brien submitted a paper on the maintenance and operation of the Goldfields Water Supply to the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, for which they were awarded the George Stephenson Gold Medal and the Telford Premium.
In January 1926 Parr was appointed Engineer Metropolitan Water Supplies, a position he held until his retirement in September 1934.
John Parr was a foundation member of the WA Institution of Engineers and was a member of its council from 1915 to 1919, being Vice President in 1919 20. He was also Vice Chairman of the WA Division and Institution of Engineers Councillor. He gave the opening paper at the first national conference of the Institution of Engineers that was held in Perth in 1927, a paper on Perth’s water supplies.
Parr maintained a connection with his father’s birthplace, England, travelling there with his wife in 1928 on long service leave, and moving to live there in the late 1930’s. He died at Thorncombe, Dorset, England, on January 8, 1959, with his wife Kate surviving him for a further seven years.
References:
H E Hunt, Perth’s Early Water Supplies, Architectural and Engineering Printers Co, West Perth
Richard G Hartley, River of Steel, Access Press, Bassendean, 2007
J S H Le Page, Building a State, Water Authority of Western Australia, 1986
West Australian, 18.9.1934, p16
