Herbert Price Lavender
Herbert Price Lavender (1857-1938)
1938 Obituary [1]
HERBERT PRICE LAVENDER was chairman of Messrs. Voucher, Ltd., engineers, of Walsall, a firm which he founded originally for the marketing of the "Voucher" check till, which he invented.
He was born in Walsall in 1857 and served his apprenticeship from 1873 to 1877 with Messrs. John Russell and Company, at the Alma Tube Works, Walsall. He then joined the George Price Safe Company, and was employed for several years at the firm's Cleveland Works, Wolverhampton.
In 1890 he took out the patent for his check till and formed the company with which he was connected for the rest of his life; he became sole proprietor in 1900. The firm was reconstituted as a limited liability company in 1917 and Mr. Lavender became managing director and from 1919 was chairman. The firms' manufactures were extended to include screwing, drilling, tapping, and grinding machines, as well as die-heads, taps, drills, and reamers. Mr. Lavender held patents for several of his inventions in this direction, the most important of which related to self-opening die heads and a new type of screwing machine. He also held patents for improved forms of locks for safes.
In 1919 Mr. Lavender was elected an Associate Member of the Institution. His death occurred on 25th April 1938, in his eighty-second year.