George Garnett
George Garnett (1820-1894)
1895 Obituary [1]
GEORGE GARNETT, Engineer and Manager to the Ryde Gaslight Co, and Chairman of the Ventnor and Shanklin Gas Companies, was essentially a self-made man.
Born at Portsea on the 2nd of January, 1820, he entered at the age of thirteen a large drug establishment in Portsmouth. From that time until 1848 he was engaged in the business of a chemist and druggist, at first in London and subsequently at Bath.
A series of descriptive articles on the manufacture of gas, published in the Hampshire Guardian, obtained for him a post in the service of the Portsea Island Gas Co, of which he became Engineer and Manager in 1853. During his connection with that company he carried out works costing £30,000 and increased the output of gas to 500,000 cubic feet per day.
In 1858 Mr. Garnett was appointed Engineer and Manager to the Ryde Gaslight Company, which post he held for upwards of thirty-six years.....(more)