Emile Garcke

Emile Oscar Garcke (1856 – 14 November 1930) was a naturalised British electrical engineer, industrial, commercial and political entrepreneur managing director of the British Electric Traction Company (BET), and early author on accounting. who is noted for writing the earliest standard text on cost accounting in 1887.

Born in Saxony, Germany in 1856, Garcke came to England at an early age, becoming a naturalised British citizen in 1880.

In 1883 he became Secretary of the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation, was promoted to Manager in 1887 and became Managing Director of its successor company, Brush Electrical Engineering Company in 1891. In 1893 he was managing director of the Electric Construction Co and lead its reorganisation.

He was a great believer in electric traction and set up the British Electric Traction Pioneer Co. in 1895. The following year he became Managing Director of the new company, now renamed British Electric Traction Co, which was involved in the electrification of tramways in Britain and abroad. The company became the largest private owner of tramways in the British Isles.

He was chairman of the council of the Industrial Co-partnership Association. and helped to found the British Institute of Philosophical Studies. He wrote a number of articles about the use of electricity for the 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica for example the lemma on Electric lighting, and on the Telephone. He was also a keen publisher of electrical books, some of which were published as the “Manuals” series, such as Garcke's Manual of Electricity Supply, even after his death.

In London Garcke was the City's expert on electrical applications, and chaired the Electrical Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce. Garcke was elected Fellow of Royal Statistical Society, and member of the Institute of Actuaries.

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