William Shapton
William Shapton (1845-1896) of Armstrong, Mitchell and Co
1896 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM SHAPTON was born at Bridgwater on 6th June 1845, and was educated near Liverpool.
After serving an apprenticeship of five years from 1861 to 1866 in the outdoor department at Liverpool of Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong and Co., he became a draughtsman in the Liverpool office of the same firm until 1874, when he was appointed outdoor manager and agent there.
After remaining a year in this position he was transferred to London as outdoor and engineering manager, having also the superintendence of the erection of work in the home counties and South Wales.
Owing to other changes, the supervision of all outdoor and agency work was shortly afterwards controlled from the London office, with himself as its engineering head, a position which he held until his death. He gave much attention to the question of shipment of coal with the least possible amount of breakage, and introduced several devices for this purpose.
He contributed a paper to the Liverpool Meeting of this Institution on grain warehousing machinery at the Alexandra Dock, Liverpool (Proceedings 1891, page 372).
For some years his health had been declining, and his death took place in Loudon on 20th August 1896, at the age of fifty-one.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1881.
1896 Obituary [2]