Thomas Percival Pask, son of Thomas Pask and his wife
Elizabeth Cole, qualified as electrical engineer and journeyman and immigrated
to South Africa in 1895. For some time he worked in the electrical department
of the Cape Government Railways before moving to Johannesburg, where he joined
the staff of the May Consolidated Gold Mining Company. In May 1897 he became a
foundation member of the South African Society of Electrical Engineers and
served as its first secretary. Many years later he published a valuable "Historical
note of 1897" (Transactions of the South
African Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1930, Vol. 21, pp. 240-243) on the
affairs of this society.
With the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) Pask
moved to Durban as a refugee. There he became associated Mr F.W. Mills, then
chief electrical engineer of the Natal Government Railways, and assisted him with
the installation of searchlights on an armoured train. Subsequently he
installed X-ray apparatus in field hospitals in Natal until just before the end
of the war. After an overseas visit he was appointed in 1903 as assistant chief
electrical engineer of the Natal Government Railways, stationed in
Pietermaritzburg. He was transferred to Durban in May 1905 and, after the
formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, was appointed assistant
superintendent (electrical and telegraphs) for Natal in the South African Railways.
In 1913 he was transferred to Johannesburg and in 1918 was promoted to
superintendent. In 1925 he succeeded F.W. Mills as chief electrical engineer, a
position he held until his retirement in 1929. After his retirement he joined
the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company.
Pask was a member of the South African Institute of
Electrical Engineers and took a keen interest in all its work,
particularly in the study of lightning and its effects. One of his papers published
in its Transactions, 'An introduction
to the study of electric traction in Natal' (1926), won the institute's gold
medal award. In a paper read before the institute in April 1930, 'An approach
to the study of lightning and allied phenomena' he advocated the establishment
of a lightning research laboratory. Later that year the institute established a
Lightning Investigation Committee, with Pask as chairman, a position he held
until 1932. The committee's work eventually led to the formation of the Bernard
Price Institute of Geophysical Research. Meanwhile Pask moved to the Cape
Peninsula for health reasons.
Pask joined the (British) Institution of Electrical
Engineers as an associate member in 1902 and became a member in 1920. He was
also for many years a member of the Roentgen Ray Society. In November 1903 he married Ethel Millicent Algar, with whom he had a daughter. Years later, in June 1927, he married Maria Magdalena Frederika Winterbach.
