Matthew Fred Bellwood
Matthew Fred Bellwood (c1881-1943)
1945 Obituary [1]
MATTHEW FRED BELLWOOD received his technical education at the Mechanics' Institute, Elswick, and served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Company from 1895 to 1902. He remained in that firm's employment until 1912, during which period he successively filled the position of assistant to the outside foreman millwright, estimator and machine inspector, and finally foreman in the heavy gun-mounting department, where he was employed on the heavy armament of H.M.S.S. Monarch and Superb.
He then went to Derbyshire to become works engineer and manager of the engineering department of the Butterley Ironworks Company and three years later was made assistant to the general manager. From 1917 to 1926 he occupied a similar position with Messrs. Bretts Patent Lifter Company, Ltd., of Coventry, and was in complete control in the absence of the managing director. After an engagement with Messrs. Humber, Ltd., of Coventry, as machine shops manager, he became general manager to Messrs. Moon Brothers, Ltd., Birkenhead. He remained with that firm for four years and then went to Messrs. Metal Containers, Ltd., Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, for whom he acted in a similar capacity, subsequently being placed in charge of the firm's London office.
In 1935 he returned to Messrs. Moon Brothers to become technical and general manager of their office in London. Four years later his services were lent to the Ministry of Supply, as production engineer, first in the North Midland Area, and subsequently in the Northern Area. Mr. Bellwood, whose death occurred on 2nd January 1944, in his sixty-third year, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1921 and was transferred to Membership in 1940.