1994: Brian Hamilton Kent

Brian Hamilton Kent (1931-)

109th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Kent was born in Hyde, in Cheshire, England in 1931.

He was educated at Hyde Grammar School and left after achieving his Higher School Certificates. He applied to take the Civil Service Examination, leading to a possible engineering apprenticeship at the ‘Atomic City’ at ERE Harwell. Instead, in 1949 Kent entered the full-time Mechanical Engineering course at Salford Technical College for an External Honours Degree from London University. He graduated in 1952 with a 2:1 Hons Degree, and the Board of Governors Prize in Mechanical Engineering.

At the age of 21, he joined Mather & Platt Ltd in Manchester as a graduate apprentice. He also lectured in the evenings at Salford, in both Mathematics and Strength of Materials.

Between June 1948 and March 1958, five international tours for young people took place. They were sponsored by the South African Aid to Britain Fund, and were to provide tours for young people who had been deprived of overseas travel in the United Kingdom because of the Second World War. As Senior Apprentice, Kent was selected to compete for a place, and spent six weeks touring selected islands of the West Indies and British Guyana on the mainland of South American.

From 1954 to 1957, Kent served in the Royal Navy, initially as part of his National Service requirement. After a year, he joined the electrical training staff for the Electrical Research Association.

On his return to civilian life, he rejoined Mather & Platt as a service engineer in the rotating machinery division, involved in the commissioning of high-speed centrifugal pumps and motors in the many Central Electricity Generating Board power stations then under construction. His role also involved trouble-shooting on breakdowns, and Kent was involved following the Windscale major gas leak in 1958.

Kent left Mather & Platt in 1964 and began working for Morganite Carbon, where he remained for five years. During this time he was selected to engage in a CPD experience, and was sent to study at IMEDE, the Nestle funded business school at Lausanne, Switzerland, to be trained in international marketing.

From 1969 to 1978, Kent worked for Alfa Laval Ltd., a British subsidiary of the Swedish multinational, as Managing Director.

Between 1978 and 1994, Kent took on the restructuring of Staveley Industries. This was an old company, a conglomerate of British heavy mechanical engineering industries, which was restructured into an international company with interests in light engineering such as weighing and non-destructive testing.

Kent was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1994.

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