Colonel Sir John Wallace Pringle, CB,

FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

(23 May 1863 – 16 July 1938) was a British engineer who was Chief Inspecting Officer of the

Railways Inspectorate Established in 1840, His Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) is the organisation responsible for overseeing safety on United Kingdom, Britain's railways and light rail, tramways. It was previously a separate non-departmental public body, but ...

of the Ministry of Transport from 1916 to 1929. As such he was in charge of investigations into a number of serious railway accidents in the UK.

Early life

Pringle was born in Madras, the son of a Scottish father, General George Pringle, and English mother, Octavia Catherine Cother.''India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947''

Early career

Pringle became a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1883. As an army officer, Pringle fought in the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

, 1885–1886. In the Uganda railway survey between 1891 and 1892, Pringle was second in command to James Macdonald. The survey's findings confirmed that the caravan route to the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it ...

was the best path for the line, followed by the easiest gradient to be found over the

Mau Escarpment The Mau Escarpment is a fault scarp running along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , ...

and down to Lake Victoria. Macdonald and Pringle recommended construction of a three-foot six inch gauge railway. They suggested that Kikuyuland would be a suitable place for whites to live, and their civilizing effect would drive out slavery, but the railway was needed to give access to the new colony. Pringle became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He received the Gill Memorial from this society in 1895 for his work on the Uganda railway survey.
In 1896, he was appointed as the superintending engineer on the survey and construction of the Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway which comes under the

Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR) was a railway company operating in India from 1879 to 1950. It was owned by the Nizams of Hyderabad State, and its full name was ''His Exalted Highness, The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway''. The compan ...

Inspecting officer

Pringle had reached the rank of Major in 1900 when he was appointed an inspecting officer in the Board of Trade. At the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, he was appointed a deputy director of railway transport with the temporary rank of Colonel. In 1916 he was confirmed in this rank when he returned to the Board of Trade as Chief Inspecting Officer. When the Ministry of Transport was formed in 1919, he was transferred to the new ministry with his department, retaining his position as Chief Inspecting Officer until his retirement in 1929. Pringle conducted various accident inquiries, including that into the Sevenoaks derailment of 24 August 1927. He chaired a committee to investigate the general adoption of automatic train control on British railways, following the adoption of an electro-mechanical system on the Great Western Railway (GWR), reporting in April 1922. He chaired a second committee on the same subject that reported in 1930, but little was done outside the GWR. He was Chairman of the Electrification of Railways Advisory Committee, which reported in 1928. Pringle was made a

Companion of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

in 1921, and was knighted in 1925. He died at Cuckfield, Sussex on 16 July 1938 at the age of 75.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pringle, John Wallace British railway inspectors Companions of the Order of the Bath Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Knights Bachelor Royal Engineers officers 1863 births 1938 deaths 19th-century British Army personnel British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Burmese War British Army personnel of World War I