Kathleen Mary Cook

Cook was educated at La Convent of the Sainte Union des Sacres Coeurs in North London and in Paris.[3] In 1928 she became an apprentice at Hercule Engineering Company, London, her father's company,[4] where she stayed for 7 years.[2]

During the Second World War, Cook and three of her brothers developed and ran a factory in Northholt, where they developed gun breech mechanisms.[3][4] In 1942 Cook became director of Hercules Aircraft Construction Co Ltd,[5] and was a founder member of Universal Equipment Co Ltd, which was established in 1945.[3] She invented and patented a mobile bed called the Kainder Mobile Bed and set up a company called Kainder Ltd in 1949.[3][2][6] In 1951 she joined Wilman Engineering Co. Ltd, a small company making electronic equipment and automatic control units.[7] She worked as chief mechanical engineer and chairman of the company,[3] and helped it to survive financial difficulties.[2][8] After raising capital, she was able to buy out her partners in the company and begin modernisation.[4]

In 1962, she was one of only ten female engineers who were entitled to designate themselves as 'Chartered Mechanical Engineer'.[3]

Cook was a fellow of the Institute of Production Engineering.[8][9] She became a student member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,[7] after being introduced by Verena Holmes who also proposed her as a full member many years later.[10] Cook was only the second woman, following Holmes, to hold full membership since it was set up in 1847.[3] She was also the first female fellow of the Institute of British Foundrymen, and a member of the British Nuclear Society and the Royal Commonwealth Society.[3]

Cook joined the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) in 1931.[4] She joined the Council in 1936,[11][5] on which she served for over 25 years.[3] She became Vice-President in 1951 and was President from 1955-56.[2][12][13] In her 1955 presidential address she talked about her work as a mechanical engineer in production and how an engineering plant is run.[14]

She wrote a number of articles for the WES journal called The Woman Engineer, including one in 1935 reporting on a Shipping Engineering and Machinery Exhibition.[15] She also produced a report on the inauguration of the Marchwood Power Station at which Princess Margaret officiated.[16] She was appointed advertising manager of The Woman Engineer in 1953.[9]

Kathleen Cook married D H I Goodwin, a marine engineer, in 1957.[3]

She died in 1971 following a long illness.[2]