Ernest Walter Rainer
Ernest Walter Rainer (c1887-1951)
1951 Obituary [1]
"ERNEST WALTER RAINER was the managing director of Messrs. Rownson, Drew and Clydesdale, Ltd., London, iron, steel and builders' merchants, and had been associated with that firm for over thirty years. He was educated at Buckhurst School, Essex, and served his time with the Great Eastern Railway at Liverpool Street, from 1903 to 1909. He then went to the United States, where he found employment for the next two years in the foundry and pattern-making shop of the Pressed Steel Radiator Co, Pittsburg, concurrently attending classes at the Carnegie Technical Extension School.
After four years as testing engineer and travelling representative for the Westinghouse Air Brake Co he returned to England and obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers. He was at first attached to the department of inland waterways and docks. Subsequently he served in the Ministry of Munitions as deputy director of transportation, and was actively engaged in the handling and transportation of cargoes between Great Britain, France, and Belgium. On demobilization in 1919, with the rank of major, he began his connection with Messrs. Rownson, Drew and Clydesdale, and joining the board of directors was at first solely concerned with the engineering section.
Later his activities were extended to include the general marketing side of the business and in 1946 he took over the duties of managing director. Mr. Rainer, whose death occurred on 21st March 1951 at the age of sixty-four, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1932."