SIR JOHN BROWN.
The
death of Sir John Brown yesterday, though long expected, will make a
powerful
appeal to Sheffielders
of the generation that is verging on age. To men in the prime of life,
and the
younger generation who are growing into industrial mastership, the
persona1 influence
of the sad event will be much smaller than seemed possible thirty years
ago. In
recent years Sir John Brown had been cut off from the life of the
city,
leaving his name to some of our greatest industrial Works, and memories
of his
public service and beneficence in the minds of those who were his
contemporaries. But today the lapse of
years should be bridged by all of us, and the whole city should
remember how
considerable was the part which Sir John played in keeping Sheffield
abreast of
the times industrially, and stimulating its growth by the development
of new
manufactures. Sir John Brown
rose from the ranks. He was a poor
man's son, and had to son the race of life fair and square from scratch. His ambition and energy were apparent from
boyhood. As he ended his apprenticeship he
received
an offer of partnership. Right from the first until he had made a very
handsome
fortune, and a name known throughout
the whole manufacturing world, he
was bold and sure in business – ready to seize upon any chance that
came in his
way. To this day multitudes of fairly
well-informed Englishmen believe that Sheffield is so fully occupied
with the
making of cutlery that her other activities are or comparative unimportance. A knowledge
of the life of Sir John Brown
would undeceive them. It was his
distinction to be amongst the first to seize upon new industries and
make them
Sheffield's, and, in doing that, he helped to 1ay the foundations of
the heavy
steel trade which is now the mainstay of the city.
The firm that he founded was chiefly associated with railway
advance and with naval defence. They'
brought out the spring railway
buffer; were the first to adopt the Bessemer
steel process, and had the earliest steel railway wheel tyres and steel
rails. Perhaps,
however, it is by his success in rolling armour
plates for ships of war that Sir John Brown will longest be remembered.
The story of
the first rolled armour plate will be found elsewhere, in our sketch of
the
life of the dead "captain of industry." No
wonder that a man of such energy and resource accumulated a
large fortune, the pity and the marvel is that much that was won by
industry
should have been lost by speculation, and that a life, so bright till
its
zenith was reached, was clouded towards the close by reverses of
fortune. Sir John Brown, while his
physical and
mental strength remained unimpaired, served the city faithfully in
almost every
possible public capacity – as member of the Ecclesall Board of
Guardians, as member and chairman of
the School Board, as a captain of
Volunteers, as a councillor and alderman, as
Mayor and Master Cutler, as a Town Trustee and magistrate, as a
generous donor
to religious objects. The list could
only be made fuller by including Parliamentary service, which was the
only
service he declined to undertake.
Englishmen are always eager to do honour to men who have lived a
characteristically
English
life; such a career was that of the remarkable man who has just gone
from us,
and Sheffield people will hear with sorrow and deep respect of the
death of one
who did so much, in times of fluctuating trade, to establish for the
city a new
industrial supremacy, and to faithfully serve his fellow-citizens
through many
years of patient public labour.