Madeleine Nobbs

This family history, and a belief that her personal talents lay in mathematics and geometry, encouraged Madeleine, having read a book about technical drawing, to declare she wished to be an engineer.

However, after her mother (Francoise Leonie Thebault) met with Adria Buchanan, the first women to become a member of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers, she interceded, telling her husband "with a charming smile and in her delightful French accent" that he could no longer refuse to support his daughter in her ambition.

Her studies at Borough Polytechnic enabled her to progress to H&V work for an architect’s office including estimating and supervising installation.

She went on to do a variety of jobs that allowed her to get practical bench and site experience until she was a fully qualified engineer and joined her father’s firm as a junior partner in 1945.

[1] Her father died in 1951, whilst engaged upon a major contract for the rebuilding of the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey after war damage, so Madeleine stepped up to become senior partner of W. J. Perkins & Partners, Consulting Engineers, and take over the firm on her own account and completed the contract.