Frank Guyver Britton
Frank Guyver Britton ( -1934)
1934 Obituary [1]
FRANK GUYVER BRITTON spent almost the whole of his engineering career in Japan, after having been trained in Japanese ships. He was a native of Liverpool, but received his technical education at the Borough Polytechnic Institute and at Battersea Polytechnic, London.
In 1896 he commenced a five years' apprenticeship with Messrs. James Simpson and Company, serving in their works at Newark on Trent and later in their London works.
He then went to sea, first with the Bucknall Line and subsequently with the Nippon Yusen Kaisha Line. He obtained the Japanese first-class engineer's certificate in 1904, and acted as first engineer on the S.S. Hiogu Maru during 1905-6.
He then joined the Yokohama Engine and Iron Works, and in 1907 was appointed manager of the Zemma Iron Works, Yokohama. The firm acted as naval contractors, boilermakers, and general engineers. Mr. Britton was concerned with a long series of gun contracts for Yokosuk Naval Arsenal. The firm later became associated with Messrs. Babcock and Wilcox, and Mr. Britton was responsible for all contracts for boiler work.
In 1928, following the amalgamation of the firm with the Mitsui interests under the title of Toyo Babcock Kabushiki Kaisha, he became general manager and a director of the combination, and held this position until his death, which occurred at Isogo, Yokohama, on 3rd June 1934, in his fifty-sixth year. Mr. Britton was also actively concerned with improvements in municipal sanitation in Yokohama.
He was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1915.
1934 Obituary [2]
FRANK GUYVER BRITTON, Director and Manager of the Toyo Babcock Kabushiki Kaisha, who had lived in Yokohama for thirty years died suddenly at his home near Yokohama on June 3, 1934.
Born in Cambridge and educated in England, Mr. Britton went to Japan in 1904 and was appointed manager of the Zemma Iron Works. This firm became in due course the Japanese works of Messrs. Babcock & Wilcox, of London.
In 1923 a partnership was formed with the Mitsui interests, when the firm became known as the Toyo Babcock Kabushiki Kaisha. Mr. Britton became general manager and director of this new combination.
A member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, he was also an active member of the Rotary Club of Yokohama, and as a Mason he was Past-Master of the Yokohama Lodge. Mr. Britton was highly esteemed by members of the foreign community as well as by the host of Japanese with whom he came into contact during his life in the country of his adoption. He was a modest, unassuming man, somewhat retiring by nature, kindly and generous, and beloved by the members of the staff. The high regard in which he was held by his staff was manifest on the day of his death when 500 of them called at his home to express to the members of his family their sorrow at the loss of one who had not only been their manager but their sincere friend.
Mr. Britton was elected a member of the Institute of Metals on July 4, 1929.