James Kerfoot
James Kerfoot (c1869-1946)
1946 Obituary [1]
JAMES KERFOOT, who was associated with the engineering side of the textile industry during most of his career, received his education (which extended over a period of ten years) at the Dukinfield Technical School, and at the Manchester College of Technology. He served his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Leech and Sons, Stalybridge, where he received practical training in the management of mills.
In 1896 he went to China to take up an appointment as superintending and consulting engineer on behalf of Messrs. Jardine Matheson and Company, Ltd., with a view to starting the first cotton mills in that country. Whilst occupying that position he erected and started mills for cotton, and also for wool and jute manufacture, eventually being in control of a personnel of some 8,000. On his return to England in 1921, after twenty-five years of this pioneer work in China, he was engaged in private practice as a consultant until his retirement in 1936.
Mr. Kerfoot, whose death occurred on 1st April 1945 in his seventy-sixth year, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1907.