Harry George
Harry George (1863-1924)
1924 Obituary [1]
Captain HARRY GEORGE, U.S.N. (ret.), died on July 21, 1924, at the Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A., and was buried with military honours in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Washington.
Captain George was born in 1863, in Cardiff, South Wales. At the age of fourteen he entered Annapolis, and graduated in 1883, one of the youngest men ever graduating. In spite of this he was one of the three "star" men at the head of his class.
In 1905 he commanded the Naval Battalion that acted as escort for the body of Captain John Paul Jones when it was taken back to the United States from France, and on that occasion he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour.
He reached the position of Captain in the United States Navy and retired in 1909, when there was a surplus of officers and little activity in the service.
On leaving the Navy he spent a number of years in Alaska prospecting, mining, helping to found and administer new settlements, and paying his way from time to time by handling an engineering problem, building a stretch of railway, a wharf or a mill.
In 1916 Captain George joined the technical staff of The Chase Companies, Inc., of Waterbury, Conn. While he had no previous practical experience in the making of brass, his very remarkable ability and enthusiasm resulted in his becoming one of the best-informed men in the United States on practical as well as theoretical problems of brass manufacture. He not only helped in the practical problems of the Chase Metal Works, in connection with the improvement of production facilities, such as electric casting furnaces and in various other directions, but devoted himself especially to assisting the Company's customers in solving their special technical problems. In addition to this work he devoted a very considerable amount of his time, since the organization of the Copper and Brass Research Association. to assist it in its wider field, and made various special reports for its benefit and that of the industry as a whole.
On the entry of the United States into the Great War, Captain George again offered his services and was made Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. This position he occupied with great ability, and was given the Navy Cross for merit. Captain George was a unique and rare character, with an extraordinarily keen mind and remarkable memory; he lived the open-air life whenever possible. He was devoted to his friends, by whom he will be greatly missed. Re is survived by his widow and daughter.
Captain George was elected a member of the Institute of Metals on June 10, 1920.