James MacGregor (1862-1947)
James MacGregor (1862-1947)
1948 Obituary [1]
"JAMES MACGREGOR, whose death occurred on 7th July 1947, in his eighty-sixth year, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1906. During the course of his long professional career he was closely concerned with the design and manufacture of machine cutting knives and small tools, and travelled extensively abroad in pursuit of new ideas for his business. He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, the Municipal Technical College, and Victoria University. His apprenticeship was served with the family firm of Messrs. P. and I. MacGregor, makers of textile machinery, from 1876 to 1880, and in the locomotive shops of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at Manchester and Horwich, from 1880 to 1887. He began his professional career with the post of assistant manager and engineer in the saw factory of Messrs. Sanderson Brothers and Newbould, Ltd., of Sheffield, with whom he remained until 1894. After a year's experience as manager for Messrs. Charles Gray and Sons, Ltd., machine knife manufacturers, he returned to Messrs. Sanderson and Newbould as works manager to initiate a similar department. Under his direction the business grew until it reached large and important dimensions.
In 1931 he relinquished this position and became a director of Messrs. A. R. Heathcote, Ltd., machine knife manufacturers, of Sheffield, for whom he also acted as works manager until his retirement in 1944 at the age of eighty-three."