Ralph Percival Smith

Ralph Percival Smith ( -1942)

Director of Steel, Peech and Tozer

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1942 Obituary.

RALPH PERCIVAL SMITH died on March 19th, 1942. Born in Edinburgh, he received much of his education in Sweden and Germany, and graduated at Charlottenburg. He joined the staff of the Lanarkshire Steel Co., Ltd., in 1908, and twelve years later he entered the works of Messrs. Colvilles, Ltd. In 1928 he moved to Sheffield and took a post in the steelworks of Messrs. Steel, Peech and Tozer (a branch of The United Steel Companies, Ltd.), later becoming a director and general manager of the company’s works at The Ickles and at Templeborough.

Mr. Percival Smith was a recognised authority on the manufacture of steel by the open-hearth process and had exceptional personal knowledge of steelmaking on the Continent, in Sweden and in America. At his death he had been for many years Chair-man of the Open-Hearth Committee and Conference of The Iron and Steel Industrial Research Council. In this capacity he was responsible more than any other individual for breaking down old- fashioned ideas of secrecy and bringing about that state of intimacy and confidence which now enables open-hearth managers freely to interchange problems and information. The value of this is now so generally accepted that it is difficult to remember that when the Open-Hearth Committee was set up in 1930 many managers and companies hesitated to mention matters which they considered affected operations at their own works only. His friendly courtesy in presiding at conferences made it easy for representatives of other works to join in discussion and the example he gave in disclosing new developments often shamed less enterprising colleagues into emulating his example. He was himself always ready to try out new suggestions and the lead he thus gave encouraged others.

Mr. Smith was a Member of a Sub-Committee appointed by the Council of The Iron and Steel Institute to organise the Symposium on Steelmaking held in May, 1938, and he contributed to it a paper on "Making Basic Open-Hearth Steel for Many Purposes" (Iron and Steel Institute, 1938, Special Report No. 22, p. 219). He was also a Member of the Heterogeneity of Steel Ingots Committee and of the Joint Sub-Committee on the Physical Chemistry of Steelmaking, and was a Past-President of the Rotherham Technical Society.

Mr. Smith was a man of great personal charm and of unusual modesty. His outlook on life was rare in its unselfishness and he derived his greatest pleasure from the success of his juniors rather than from any personal achievement; he prided himself on building up an expert team among his staff and his dearest wish was to infuse the same spirit of cordiality and loyalty among the men at the works under his control. Progress in open-hearth steelmaking in Great Britain during the last decade owes as much to him as to any other man.

Mr. Smith joined the Institute in 1912.

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