Gerald Steel
Gerald Steel (c1894-1957), general managing director of United Steel Companies
1957 Obituary [1]
THE death of Mr. Gerald Steel, which occurred on Saturday last, September 14, in London, deprives the British steel industry of one of its leading executives. He was general managing director of The United Steel Companies, Ltd., and president-elect of the British Iron and Steel Federation.
Mr. Steel, who was sixty-three, was educated at Charterhouse and Oriel College, Oxford. Throughout the first world war he served with the Royal Fusiliers and the King's African Rifles in East Africa, and entered the steel industry following demobilisation in 1919.
He joined Steel, Peech and Tozer, in Sheffield, a firm which his father helped to found.
In 1928, Mr. Steel was appointed managing director of The United Steel Companies (India), Ltd., and worked for four years in India.
He returned to this country in 1932, becoming a director and the general manager of Samuel Fox and Co., Ltd., another of the companies in the United Steel Group.
In 1941, Mr. Steel was appointed to the board of The United Steel Companies, Ltd., becoming joint managing director in 1947, sole managing director in 1949, and general managing director in 1954.
For a number of years Mr. Steel had been active in the work of the British Iron and Steel Federation, serving on its council and executive committee. His special interest was in that part of the Federation's work related to education and training in the steel industry; he was the first chairman of the Federation's training committee. Mr. Steel was also a member of the British Steel Producers' Conference, chairman of the central council of Iron and Steel Employers Associations, a vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute, and a director of the National Provincial Bank. He was created C.B.E. in the New Year Honours of 1956.