Francis Samuel Heys (1887-1947)
1948 Obituary.[1]
FRANCIS SAMUEL HEYS, who died on the 12th November, 1947, was born on the 28th March, 1887. He received his engineering education at the Polytechnic, Regent Street, and his practical training as an apprentice with the British Westinghouse Co., at Trafford Park, Manchester. He was then engaged elsewhere for a short time on practical installation work, but rejoined the Westinghouse Co. in 1909, in the Plant Department, where he spent about five years on planning and preparing specifications for power installations. During the First World War his abilities in this direction were employed to a large extent in planning such installations for munition factories, both in this country and abroad, and shortly after the end of the war he was transferred to the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Export Co., London, to gain the necessary experience prior to his appointment in 1921 as Chief Assistant to the Manager in China. He became Manager in 1925. He returned to England in 1933, when conditions in Shanghai had already become so difficult as to make trading almost impossible, and a few months later he retired from the service of the company, largely owing to the state of his wife's health. Mrs. Heys's condition having improved sufficiently, he rejoined the company in 1937 as a member of the organization at Johannesburg, but his own health broke down and in 1938 it again became necessary for him to retire.
He joined The Institution as an Associate Member in 1920 and was elected a Member in 1926.