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William (Bill) L Patterson

William (Bill) L Patterson was the WA division’s Foundation President from 1942–1944, and our National President from 1950–1951.

Patterson's legacy lives on in objects still treasured by the WA committee – including a custom-made cabinet to house the division’s foundation charter.
 
Its inscription states: “This charter box was presented to the Institute by W.L. Patterson Esq. Foundation President, WA Division, President 1942–43–44.”

Patterson is also the titular man behind the WA committee’s Patterson Memorial Prize, established in 1972 from donations made by AIRAH members and HVAC&R organisations in the state.
 
The award recognises outstanding work by an individual in the advancement of the technical, engineering or education aspects of the HVAC&R industry. It is awarded annually at the WA Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Awards Night hosted by AMCA, AIRAH, the Alan Robert Memorial Fund and South Metro TAFE. It is open to any individual who is a member of AIRAH and actively engaged in the HVAC&R industry.

The Australian Institute of Refrigeration's WA division in 1947. Foundation President William Patterson is pictured bottom left.

Man of the Month
Mr WL Patterson

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It is a well known saying that "A Scot engineer can be found in every nook and corner of the world".

It is very true of Mr Patterson, for on browsing through the records of Western Australia it was found that in 1905 he put in some plant at the old Fremantle works then known as the Western Fresh Food and Ice Coy., but later the name was changed to Western Ice Coy. The following year he went to Kalgoorlie as their Engineer for a period of three years. In 1909 he accepted the position of Officer in Charge of the first State Abattoirs in Western Australia which was at Kalgoorlie. Subsequently his title was altered to Manager and he served in this capacity for 10 years. In 1919 the Western Ice Co. was put on the market for sale. It belonged to Emannel Bros. – one of the brothers had died, another was in England; then came the death of the other partner, Ville (of Ville & Co., Sydney). WLP desired to obtain the Kalgoorlie section (of which he had been manager).

However, together with other interested parties, they obtained control of the Kalgoorlie, Fremantle and Perth works of Western Ice. Mr Patterson resigned from the State Agricultural Department in 1919 and he took over the management of Western Ice Co., Kalgoorlie Ltd.

In 1923, after a trip to Singapore, and following a change in the personnel of the Board, Mr Patterson was appointed Consulting Engineer to the metropolitan works. It was on his recommendation that the new works were built on their present site in Roe Street.

This profile of Patterson was found in AIRAH's WA archives. 

It was in 1927 the W.I. Co. (1919) Ltd started to manufacture Peters Ice Cream under Royalty.

Progress was so rapid that during 1929 Mr FAB Peters was invited to visit Western Australia, with the ultimate result he floated a new company called Peters American Delicacy Co. (WA) Ltd., subsequently altered to Peters Ice Cream (WA) Ltd., taking over the whole of the assets of Western Ice (1919) Ltd. WLP was appointed Chief Engineer to both Companies and in 1937 he was instructed to erect and install a new modern ice cream factory alongside the old plant bringing the total capacity up to 5,000 gallons of ice cream per day in addition to the output of 100 tons of ice per day, plus considerable tonnage of cold storage space available for local and exporters perishable food products.

Pat, as he is intimately known on the bowling green, speaks, works and dreams of the doings and good welfare of Western Australia.

He was instrumental in the founding of the WA division of A.I.R. and he supported the division liberally in every way, as well as with the part he played towards the successful Conference of the A.I.R. held in Perth during his term of office as Federal President of the Institute.

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