Francis Cheesman
Francis Cheesman (1848(?)-1879)
1880 Obituary [1]
MR. FRANCIS CHEESMAN, fifth son of Mr. Robert Cheesman, of Westwell, Kent, was articled for four years in November 1864 to Messrs. Eastons, Amos, and Anderson.
In February 1869 he was engaged under Mr. H. C. Anderson, M. Inst. C.E., in the erection of large paper mills, for the Viceroy of Egypt, at Boulak, and of sugar mills at Bene-Mazar and at Aba, for which Messrs. Eastons and Co. were the contractors, and he remained in Egypt until the end of 1873.
In February 1874 he undertook the erection of a paper-making mill at Ogi, Japan, for the Japan Paper Making Co. This work was under his sole charge, and was completed very quickly, nearly the whole of the labour being done by Japanese workmen.
Mr. Cheesman returned to England in 1877, and, on the 1st of January 1878, entered into partnership with Messrs. Clayton and Howlett, engineers and ironfounders, where he remained until his sudden death, from heart disease, at the age of thirty-one, on the 15th of January, 1879.
As an evidence of his character, a friend writes : "That he was a man of wonderful self-possession : nothing seclncd to disturb him or put him out. He used to go about his work in a quiet, determined manner, which had the effect of making the natives obey him. He also picked up languages very quickly.”