Frank Parfett
Frank Parfett (1885-1980), father of UK Postage Meters.
1939 Living at 9 Manor Mount, Lewisham, Engineers Designer. With May E. M. Parfett.[1]
1944 'Mr. Parfett, who is in his 60th year, is the son of the late Mr. Frank Parfett, who for some years was Sergeant-at-Mace at Faversham (the immediate predecessor of Mr. W. H. Smith who recently retired from that position). Mr. Parfett was educated at Upper Nautical School, Greenwich; Devonport Naval Dockyard School, and at Goldsmiths College under the late Professor William Lineham. Shortly after the completion of his apprenticeship at Devonport Dockyard, he joined the staff of the Western Electric Company, Ltd., and in due course was promoted to the Telephone Engineering Department, specialising in switchboard circuits for manual and semi-automatic telephone exchanges. During the last war he reverted to mechanical engineering as leading draughtsman-in-charge, Carriage Inspection Department, Woolwich, dealing with heavy howitzer equipment. Since 1922 he has been specialising in mailing machines of various kinds and in this connection he has visited the U.S.A. and the Continent. He contributed a paper on this subject in 1936 which was read before the Society. He was Assistant Manager of the Sterling Telephone and Electric Co. Ltd., and is now Chief Engineer of Universal Postal Frankers, Ltd. He has been a member of the Society of Engineers since 1919 and joined the Council in 1935. He was made a Trustee of the Society in 1943. Mr. Parfett is a cousin of Mr. Sydney Masters, Headmaster of North Preston Council School.'[2]