Thomas Frederick Hope

Thomas Frederick Hope (1919 to 1996) was a Sierra Leonean civil engineer, businessman and scholar who served as general manager and chief engineer of the Guma Valley Water Company and as president of the Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce. Born in Freetown to Creole parents, he was educated at the Government Model School and the Prince of Wales School, worked in the colonial civil service, and won a scholarship to Achimota College in Ghana before studying at Loughborough Technical College in England. He became Assistant Water Engineer in 1950 and City Water Engineer for Freetown in 1955, led the Guma Valley Water Company from 1961, and was its general manager and chief engineer from 1963 until his retirement in 1976, after which he worked as a consultant in Freetown and for the African Development Bank. He was appointed M.B.E. in 1961 and O.B.E. in 1970, held an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Sierra Leone, and died in London.