John Scudamore Sellon (1836-1918)
1918 Obituary [1]
JOHN SCUDAMORE SELLON whose death at the age of 81 took place on the 18th January, 1918, in London, was born in 1836, fifth son of Captain William Baker Sellon, R.N.
At an early age he joined the well-known business house of Johnson, Matthey & Company, assayers and refiners to the Bank of England and Royal Mint, metallurgists, etc., founded by his uncle, Percival Norton Johnson, in 1822. He played a prominent part in the researches and industrial developments connected with the platinum and other groups of rarer metals, with which the name of his firm is closely associated; indeed the now numerous and important commercial applications of platinum and its allied metals may be said to be chiefly due to the initiative and efforts of himself and his co-workers George and Edward Matthey.
During the concluding quarter of last century he also took an active share, both in the fields of technical discovery and industrial development, in the then new sphere of electrical engineering, and he was associated with Faure, Brush, Swan, Lane-Fox, Volckmar, and others in their early work on electric lighting and storage.
He married in 1858 Fanny Maria, daughter of Captain Thomas Alexander Souter, 44th Regiment, who survives him.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1881 and a Member in 1885.