Herbert Cyril Armitage
Herbert Cyril Armitage (c1888-1940) of Austin
1940 Obituary [1]
MIDLAND engineering circles have suffered a great loss by the death of Mr. Herbert Cyril Armitage, who died suddenly on Sunday, September 29th. He was only fifty-two years of age.
From 1916 until March of this year Mr. Armitage was efficiency and production manager of the Austin Motor Company, Ltd., Northfield, and since then had been manager of Rootes Securities Factory at Coventry.
Leaving Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, Rochester, in 1901, he began his training work under his father at Aveling and Porter, Ltd., Rochester.
In 1902 he went to Ruston and Hornsby, Ltd., Grantham, to complete his training.
In 1909 he went to Mather and Platt, Ltd., Manchester, where he rose to the position of assistant works manager and works engineer.
During the last war, from 1914 until 1916, Mr. Armitage was works manager at Cogswell and Harrison Company, Ltd., small arms manufacturers of London, where, besides being responsible for all designing and manufacturing departments, be was instrumental in starting the works on war contracts for periscope parts and light war materials.
At the Austin works he was responsible for all technical matters relating to production of tool designs and works orders for jigs, tools, plant, buildings, &c. Work undertaken by him included the development of job planning in the workshops and reduction in labour costs.
He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of Research at Birmingham for some time, and was also a member of the Institute of Chemical Engineering.
1941 Obituary [2]
HERBERT CYRIL ARMITAGE was born in Ipswich in 1887 and received his technical education at Rochester Technical Institute from 1902 to 1904, and at Grantham Technical School from 1904 to 1908.
He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Aveling and Porter, Ltd., and with Messrs. R. Hornsby and Sons, Ltd., from 1902 to 1907 and remained as a draughtsman with the latter firm until 1910. He was then appointed works engineer to Messrs. Mather and Platt, Ltd., in Manchester, where he was responsible for the layout and design of the Park Works at Newton Heath.
In 1914 he went as works manager to Messrs. Cogswell and Harrison, a small arms manufacturing company in London, and took charge of the designing and manufacturing departments. He also adapted the works for war contracts for periscope parts, Verey pistols, and service rifle parts. From 1916 until March 1940, when he was transferred to Rootes Securities, Ltd., he was in the employment of the Austin Motor Company, Ltd., in Birmingham, first as assistant superintendent of the tool design and manufacturing departments, an appointment which he held until 1918.
In the same year he was responsible for the demobilization of the war plant and the change-over of the works to the manufacture of motor cars and agricultural tractors. He was made chief production engineer in 1919.
Mr. Armitage, whose death occurred on 28th September 1940, was elected a Graduate of the Institution in 1908 and was transferred to Associate Member in 1914, and to Membership in 1929. He was the author of a paper on "Jigs, Tools, and Special Machines with their Relation to the Production of Standardized Parts". He also rendered valuable services to the Institution as a member of the Committee of the Midland Branch from 1933 till his death.
Mr. Armitage took a leading part in the formulation of a series of Acceptance Test Charts, published jointly by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Production Engineers. The use of these Charts was discussed at a joint meeting of the two Institutions on 25th October 1940.