1923-24: Henry George Burford

1923-24: Henry George Burford

Image Details

Biography Portrait by HJ Whitlock and Sons.

1944 Obituary:
Burford had a long connection with the motor industry and was especially concerned with the development of the commercial vehicle, being one of the pioneers of London's motor buses. On the completion of a six years' apprenticeship in 1888 with Messrs. William Sibley and Sons, Parrett Iron Works, Somerset, he gained experience during the next five years as foreman and manager with various engineering firms including Messrs. Davey, Paxman and Company, of Colchester, and Messrs. Easton and Anderson, of Erith.

In 1896 he went into business on his own account as a motor car sales engineer and was interested in the introduction of the private motor car. In 1902 he became manager to Messrs. George F. Milnes and Company, Ltd., and four years later was appointed engineer and managing director of the Milnes-Daimler Company, Ltd., London. Subsequently he filled positions as director of the Mercedes Company, Germany, and general manager of the Humber Company, Coventry, with responsibility for a personnel of over 3,000. He then became a life director of Messrs. H. G. Burford and Company, motor lorry manufacturers, and was the managing director of that firm's ancillary at Fremont, Ohio, U.S.A. He was also, at one time, director of the Societe Anonyme Austin works in France. Of recent years he had been chiefly engaged as a works organizer and consultant.

Mr. Burford, whose death occurred on 7th July 1943 in his seventy-sixth year, was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1902 and was transferred to Membership in 1906. He was also a past-president of the Institution of Automobile Engineers and of the Institution of Engineers-in-Charge.