William Leslie
LESLIE, William, MICE MIME AMIEAust (1860-1940)
William Leslie was born in Scotland in October 1860, and was educated at public schools at Alyth and Glasgow. He then undertook a five year engineering apprenticeship and attended the West of Scotland Technical College in Glasgow. Next, he worked with John Elder and Company at the Fairfield Shipyard, subsequently spending three years on the Cape Mail service gaining experience in marine engineering. Returning to Glasgow, he undertook further studies at the West of Scotland Technical College in civil engineering. In 1885 he left Scotland for British Honduras to work on harbour and city infrastructure at Belize.
Leslie was again in Glasgow in 1890, where he worked as a consulting and inspecting engineer. In 1893 he was offered the position of manager of the Firhill Ironworks and he held that role until 1896 when he resigned to travel to Australia.
In October 1896 he was appointed as Engineer in Charge of Swan River Improvements and in 1898 became Resident Engineer Mundaring Weir. In 1902 after the death of C Y O’Connor, and having completed Mundaring Weir, he became Resident Engineer for Fremantle Harbour Works.
He ceased work in the public service in 1903 to establish the engineering firm, W Leslie and Company, undertaking both civil and mechanical engineering design and construction.
Leslie was a founding member of the WA Institution of Engineers and was an inaugural Trustee and Vice President in 1910-11. He became its second President being elected for 1911-12.
His wife, Annie Couper Leslie, died aged 48 years on May 21, 1913. His son, William Leslie junior, served in World War I and was on the Honour Roll of the WA Institution of Engineers. William Leslie junior later became Chief Engineer for the Midland Railway Company.
In 1920, William Leslie was an Australian delegate to the International Labor Conference in Geneva. He also stood as a candidate for the WA Legislative Council in the 1932 and 1936 elections for the Metropolitan Province, but he was not elected. Leslie died on June 30, 1940 in Perth, survived by his son William Leslie junior and his daughter Bessy Couper Leslie.
References:
J. S. Battye (ed), Cyclopedia of Western Australia, vol 1 (Adel, 1912);
West Australian, 6.7.1940, p8;
Richard G Hartley, River of Steel, Access Press, 2007.
