William Alfred Pickwoad

Pickwoad started his career in 1904 with the Great Western Railway of Brazil.^[13][14] At the outbreak of World War I he volunteered for active service and attained the rank of captain in the Royal Engineers.^[15][16][17]

After the war Pickwoad became general manager of the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway^[18] and President of the Bolivian Railway.^[19] In 1944 he was appointed general manager of the Central Argentine Railway,^[20] a position he held until 1948 when he was made special adviser to the Argentine Ministry of Transport.^[21][22] In 1949 he was made President of a significant import and export business in São Paulo, Brazil.^[23]

In addition to his work on South American railways, Pickwoad was a founding director of the Central Bank of Bolivia,^[6] President of Banco Mercantil, still one of the largest banks in Bolivia, and President of the National Cement Company of Bolivia.^[7]

Pickwoad was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1937,^[3] a Grand Officer of the Order of the Condor of the Andes in Bolivia, a Commander of the Mérito Militar of Bolivia and an Officer of the Cruzeiro do Sol in Brazil.^[1]

On 17 August 1929, Pickwoad married Mary Frances Watkins of Alhambra, California, USA.^[8] They had one daughter, Pamela Elizabeth Pickwoad,^[24] who married (secondly) Lieutenant-Colonel James Dighton Butler with whom she had two children.^[25]

A prominent freemason, Pickwoad was Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Bolivia and Worshipful Master of the Anglo Bolivian Lodge No 7.^[26][27][28] He was a founder of the Rotary Club of La Paz in Bolivia and one of its early presidents.^[29][30]