Francis Herbert Bramwell
Francis Herbert Bramwell (1890-1958)
1958 Obituary [1]
FRANCIS HERBERT BRAMWELL, B.Sc.(Eng.), who was born on 9 May, 1890, died on 7 May, 1958.
After education at St Dunstan’s College, London and the Central Technical College, London, where he graduated in 1909, Mr Bramwell was trained in the workshops of St Helens Colliery, Cumberland, and in the drawing office of Newton Chambers Ltd, London.
From 1910-1914 he was a student assistant in the Aeronautics Division of the Engineering Department of the National Physical Laboratory. During this period he was the Author of a number of Papers on aeronautics.
Commissioned in 1914 as a Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R., attached to the R.N.A.S., Mr Bramwell became in 1916, Engineer and Designer in the Aviation Department of the Sunbeam Motor Co. Ltd, but in 1917 he was recalled to the Air Board and later to the Technical Department of the Ministry of Munitions as Section Director.
In 1920 he joined Brunner Mond and Co. Ltd, first as Superintendent on Research, the major task being the development of ammonia synthesis, and then as Deputy Chief Engineer on the design and construction of a new factory at Billingham.
Transferred to the company’s head office at Northwich in 1925, he was Research Manager for 2 years before a second transfer took him to the London head office of I.C.I. Ltd.
In 1931, Mr Bramwell became head of the I.C.I. London Engineering Dept, and until 1938, was concerned with the design and building of ammonia manufacturing plants in South Africa and Czechoslovakia. Moving, in 1938, to the General Chemicals Division of I.C.I. Ltd in Liverpool, Mr Bramwell became Chief Engineer and Delegate Director, which position he held until his retirement in May 1952.
During the 1939-45 War, he was responsible for building chemical plants worth £20 million for the Ministries of Supply, Aircraft Production, and Food. From 1944 onwards he was engaged in planning large-scale extensions and reorganizations of various I.C.I. factories.
Mr Bramwell was for some time Chairman of the Council of the Electrical Research Association, and a member of the Board of the Power Gas Corporation Ltd....[more]