Horace Moore Thornton
Horace Moore Thornton (1872-1939)
1917 of the Richmond Gas Stove and Meter Co.
1939 Obituary [1]
"HORACE MOORE THORNTON, who was the managing director and chairman of the Richmond Gas Stove and Meter Company, Ltd., had been connected with the firm for over forty years when he died on 3rd June 1939.
He was born in 1872 at Leicester and was educated there between 1880 and 1889. He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Samuel Greenway and Company, West Bromwich, from 1889 to 1894, and on leaving this firm he joined the staff of the Richmond Gas Stove and Meter Company, Ltd., as junior representative. Two years later he was appointed senior representative and in 1899 he was made London general manager and elected to a seat on the board of directors. In 1902 he became managing director and was elected vice-chairman of the board, subsequently becoming chairman.
He was responsible for the reconstruction of the company's works and installation of modern plant. Earlier, he had carried out extensive investigations into the uses of coal, coke, and gas for industrial processes, and the Royal Society of Arts, of which he was elected a Fellow in 1914, awarded him a silver medal for a paper on this subject. He was for many years a member, and at one time chairman, of the council of the Society of British Gas Industries, and he served on the council of the British Commercial Gas Association. He was elected a Member of the Institution in 1914. He was also an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers."