Philip Alfred Down
Philip Alfred Down (c1865-1935)
1935 Obituary [1]
PHILIP ALFRED DOWN had nearly forty years' experience of printing machinery with various London firms.
He was born in Calstock, Cornwall, and served a five years' apprenticeship, commencing in 1880, in the engineering shops of a Devonshire mining company.
He then came to London and was employed until 1889 in Messrs. Gwynne's works at Hammersmith. In that year he joined Messrs. R. Hoe and Company, makers of printing machinery, Borough, S.E., and took charge of one of their departments until 1894, when he became engineer in charge at the works of Messrs. W. P. Griffiths, Government and general printers, in Old Bailey.
Four years later he was appointed outdoor manager to Messrs. T. Middleton and Company, Ltd. The firm specialized both in printing machinery and in machinery for the manufacture of inlaid linoleum.
In 1907 he was made manager of the printing machinery department of Messrs. G. H. Elliott and Company, Ltd., at Bermondsey, with whom he remained until his retirement in 1928.
He still, however, continued to act as consulting engineer for several firms until shortly before his death, which occurred at South Croydon on 28th March 1935, in his seventieth year.
He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1916.