George Graham Poppleton
George Graham Poppleton ( -1928)
1928 Obituary [1]
GEORGE GRAHAM POPPLETON, of the firm of Poppleton and Appleby, Chartered Accountants, Birmingham, and of the Wholesale Traders Association for the Hardware, Motoring, and Furnishing Trades, died at his home, Selly Wick, on December 14, 1927. By his death the Institute of Metals lost an old and valued member, who had acted as Auditor from the formation of the Institute up to the time of his death. Mr. Poppleton passed away rather suddenly, for on November 8 he was present, apparently in the best of health, at a complimentary banquet to mark his retirement from the firms of which he had so long been the main-spring. High honour was paid to him on that occasion, and he seemed likely to enjoy many years of well-earned leisure. But even then he must, unknowingly, have been suffering from an internal malady, and his period of rest was a brief one.
Mr. Poppleton became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1880, and in the same year commenced to practise as a Chartered Accountant at Huddersfield. He founded the Wholesale Traders Association, and in 1884 the late Councillor C. T. Appleby joined him as managing clerk, and a year later was taken into partnership.
Two years after that Mr. Poppleton went to Birmingham and opened a branch office, and in 1892 Mr. Appleby joined him there. Mr. Poppleton was a man of remarkable zeal and activity, mentally and physically. He filled many offices in the public life of Birmingham and neighbourhood. He was for nine years a member of the Birmingham City Council, but retired in 1920. A strong Unionist, he was actively engaged in connection with the Northfield Association. He was a prominent Freemason, and the first Worshipful Master of the St. Lawrence Lodge. In his younger days he was an athlete of distinction.
Mr. Poppleton was an Original Member of the Institute.