Charles David Phillips
Charles David Phillips (1845-1912) of Charles D. Phillips and proprietor of Phillips Monthly Machinery Register
Engineer, coachbuilder and early car owner.
c. 1874 Birth of son Charles Godfrey Phillips.
1897 Details of the first car seen in Cardiff [1][2]
1912 Obituary [3]
CHARLES DAVID PHILLIPS was born at Newport, Mon., on 26th December 1845.
After having been educated at Long Ashton and Normal College, he served his apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer, and made a rapid advancement so that he soon became proprietor of an engineering establishment. He ultimately took extensive premises at Newport, known as the Emlyn and Central Engineering Works, together with works at Gloucester, and subsequently added branches in London and Cardiff.
At the Newport Works he carried out repairs of all kinds to locomotives, engines, boilers, etc., and manufactured hauling engines, saw-benches, mortar mills, foundry core ovens, &c. He also brought out apparatus for automatically controlling Bessemer converters.
His entire Engineering Works and Foundry have recently been concentrated at Newport, Mon. All phases of outdoor life appealed to him. He not only manufactured and dealt in agricultural machinery, but became an active farmer in a large and successful way; and for a number of years he was one of the honorary secretaries of the Monmouthshire Chamber of Agriculture.
In addition to his connection with local societies, he was a very active participant in the Shows of the Royal Agricultural Society and the Bath and West of England Society. For a few years he was a member of the Newport Corporation, but retired through pressure of business, though he continued to take a deep interest in the public 'affairs of the town and county, for both of which he was a Justice of the Peace.
His death took place at his residence in Newport, after a long illness, on 21st October 1912, in his sixty-seventh year.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1885; he was also a Member of the Iron and Steel Institute and of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.
1912 Obituary [4]
CHARLES D. PHILLIPS died on October 21, 1912, at his residence, The Gaer, Newport, after an illness of about six months. He was one of the best-known men in Monmouthshire and South Wales.
Born in 1845, he was apprenticed as a youth to the mechanical engineering profession. When he completed his articles he made very rapid advancement in a variety of fields. He was soon proprietor of an engineering establishment, and ultimately took extensive premises known as the Emlyn Works, at Newport, together with works at Gloucester (now, however, relinquished), and branches in London and Cardiff. He also founded and published Phillips' Monthly Machinery Register, to which he added later an electrical and autocar supplement. He was also a successful farmer, as well as a manufacturer of and dealer in all kinds of machinery and engineering plant.
He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the South Wales Institute of Engineers. He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1890.