Richard Sennett

Inspector of Machinery Richard Sennett, F.R.S.N.A., Royal Navy (25 October, 1847 – 4 September, 1891) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

On 25 April, 1883, Sennett was appointed to the Admiralty as Inspector of Machinery in the Controller's Department. On 29 October, 1885, he was promoted to the rank of Inspector of Machinery. William Castle, promoted at the same time, was fourteen years his senior. In 1886 Sennett became Acting Engineer-in-Chief of the Royal Navy at the very early age of thirty-nine, pending the retirement of Sir James White. He resigned in 1889 to join the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field. The reason for his departure from the Naval Service is not known, but he did not llast long in his new position at Lambeth. Consumption ran through his family, and he fell ill in 1891. A trip to the Cape did not ameliorate his condition. He died on 4 September, 1891, at Walton-on-Thames, aged forty-three. Sir William White wrote of him, "… a man who by what he had done and dared had helped the cause of marine engineering in many ways, and in a manner which had yet to recognised."

Bibliography

• "Deaths" (Deaths). The Times. Monday, 7 September, 1891. Issue 33423, col A, pg. 1.
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• Smith, Engineer Captain Edgar C. (June 1971). "Richard Sennett, F.R.S.N.A. (1847-1891)". Journal of Naval Engineering 23 (2): pp. 418-421.

Service Record

• The National Archives. ADM 196/24.

Naval Offices
Preceded by James Wright	Engineer-in-Chief 1886 – 1889	Succeeded by John Durston