Henry Alwyn Close
Henry Alwyn Close (1874-1951)
1952 Obituary [1]
"HENRY ALWYN CLOSE, whose death occurred as the result of an accident on 11th October 1951 in his seventy-seventh year, was a member of the Institution for over half a century. He was elected a Graduate in 1898 and transferred to Associate Membership in 1901 and to Membership in 1910. Mr. Close was educated at Doncaster and Wakefield Grammar Schools and served an apprenticeship from 1893 to 1896 in the Horwich Locomotive Works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. After taking a short engineering course at University College, Liverpool, he became a pupil of Mr. John Aspinall, at that time chief mechanical engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, after which he joined Hornsby and Sons, Ltd., engineers, Grantham, as a draughtsman, and for a brief period was employed as an assistant engineer with the Farnley Iron Company, Ltd., Leeds. In 1907 he went into practice on his own account as a consulting engineer and agent, and continued in this work until 1916 when he became attached to the inspectorate of the Ministry of Munitions. Three years later he established the Close Asbestos Rubber Company, Ltd., Wakefield. This business he controlled jointly, from 1932 as managing director and chairman, with the Wakefield, York and Scarborough Relay Services Company. In addition, Mr. Close was Chairman of the Wakefield Picture House, Ltd."