Francis Clarke Polden
Francis Clarke Polden (1879-1950)
1951 Obituary [1]
"FRANCIS CHARLES POLDEN was the chairman and managing director of Messrs. Francis Polden and Company, Ltd., London, electrical and mechanical engineers and contractors, and had been head of the firm for forty years.
He was born in 1879 and educated privately, obtaining his technical instruction at the Battersea Polytechnic Institute. He served his apprenticeship between 1893 and 1898 with Messrs. Lund Brothers and Company, Ltd., and Messrs. Ashwell and Nesbit, Ltd., London. He continued in the service of the latter firm as a charge engineer for a further two years and for a brief period was assistant engineer to Messrs. J. Stone and Company, Ltd., Deptford, before taking up an appointment as chief electrical engineer to the Rhodesia Railways. He relinquished this position in 1906 and returning to England renewed his association with Messrs. Lund Brothers and Company.
Four years later he established the business which bears his name, and which he continued to direct up to the day of his death on 3rd July 1950. Mr. Polden was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1905 and was transferred to Membership in 1918. He was also a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In addition, he had served on the Common Council of the City of London since 1927 and was sometime chairman of the Police Committee."