William Isaac Last

AMICE The amice is a liturgical vestment used mainly in the Roman Catholic church, Western Orthodox church, Lutheran church, some Anglican, Armenian and Polish National Catholic churches. Description The amice consists of a white cloth connected to two ...

(1857 – 7 August 1911) was a British

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

who became a

museum curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

and the second Director of the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

David Follett Sir David Henry Follett (5 September 1907 – 11 May 1982) was an English curator who was Director of the Science Museum, London from 1960 to 1973. Follett was born in Kingston, Surrey, and attended Rutlish Grammar School (1919–26). He then ...

, ''The Rise of the Science Museum under

Henry Lyons Henry J. Lyons (born 1942) is a former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. who was indicted by federal prosecutors in 1998 for fraud, extortion, money laundering, conspiracy and tax evasion. Early life Lyons was raised by his ...

''.

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

, 1978. . Pages 16–17.Obituary: William Isaac Last, 1857–1911

Minutes of the Proceedings
', Volume 186
Issue 1911
pages 453–454.

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

. W. I. Last was born in Dorchester and educated as a mechanical engineer. He was initially apprenticed with Messrs. Haywood, Tyler and Company. For the first part of his career, he was involved in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

and

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

activities in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In 1890, he was appointed to the position of Keeper of the

Machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...

and

Invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...

s division of the

South Kensington Museum South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

. He was promoted to Senior Keeper in 1900, when the scientific part of the museum had been split into the Science Museum, and then became Director of the museum in 1904 until his death in 1911. He was an Associate Member of the

References

1857 births 1911 deaths English mechanical engineers English civil engineers English curators Directors of the Science Museum, London 19th-century British businesspeople {{England-engineer-stub