Alfred Rowe Bellamy
Alfred Rowe Bellamy (c1862-1945)
1939 M.I.Mech.E. Ruston and Hornsby, Ltd., Spittlegate Iron Works, Grantham. Private address:1, Welby Gardens, Grantham.
1946 Obituary [1]
ALFRED ROWE BELLAMY, whose death occurred on 16th July 1945 at the age of 83, had been a director of Messrs. Ruston and Hornsby, Ltd., of Lincoln and Grantham, and of firms absorbed into their organization, for more than fifty years, and was well known as a pioneer in the development of the internal combustion engine. He was educated privately and served his apprenticeship from 1878 to 1883 with Messrs. Pollock and Macnab, of Manchester. During this period he attended classes at the Victoria University. He then entered the drawing office of Messrs. J. E. H. Andrew and Company, of Stockport, who at that time had just begun the manufacture of the Bisschop gas engine, a French invention.
The experimental work of Mr. Andrew in conjunction with Mr. Bellamy (who furnished the first complete set of drawings), was so successful that thousands of these small engines were built. Later he was closely concerned with the development of the two-cycle "Stockport" gas engine. On the reconstitution of the firm as a limited liability company in 1886, he was made secretary and works manager, becoming general manager in 1890 and finally, in 1893, managing director. In that capacity he was responsible for the layout and construction of the company's new works at Reddish, near Stockport, where he subsequently brought out a new four-stroke engine.
Other products of the firm included gas engines and suction gas plant. On the amalgamation of the business in 1906 with that of Messrs. Richard Hornsby and Sons, Ltd., of Grantham, Mr. Bellamy became a director of the new company, and continued on the board after a further amalgamation, in 1918, with Messrs. Ruston and Proctor, of Lincoln. He was also a director of the associated company of Messrs. Ruston-Bucyrus, Ltd. His resignation of these appointments took effect in 1944.
He had been a Member of the Institution since 1897 and was a founder member and past-president of the Grantham Engineering Society.
1945 Obituary [2]