Sir John Brown

Sir John Brown was an important figure in Britain's industrial development and in the political life of Sheffield in the second half of the nineteenth century. As the Sheffield & Rotherham Independent put it upon his death:

"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 lay 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.........[He] 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."

This page provides links to accounts of his life which, although they overlap to a significant degree, focus on different aspects:

            The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent - Obituary (28 December 1896)

            The Making of Sheffield 1865-1914 by J H Stainton, E Weston & Sons, Sheffield, 1924

            Ships & Steel - The Story of John Brown's by Sir Alan Grant, Michael Joseph, 1950

Other links:

Tilt Hammer site which contains short biographies of important figures in the development of Sheffield.
Sir Henry Bessemer's autobiography including chapters on the introduction of the Bessemer process and the Bessemer Saloon Ship
More than Ore: Modern Spanish Steel, 1856-1936 by Stephan Houpt which contains a short account of John Brown's involvement with the Galdames mines near Bilbao.
The Great Flood at Sheffield on March 11 & 12 , 1864 by Samuel Harrison and made available by Mick Armitage in which John Brown makes a brief appearance.