George Frederick Seaton
George Frederick Seaton (c1871-1950)
1950 Obituary [1]
"GEORGE FREDERICK SEATON was associated with the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, during almost the whole of his professional career, including his apprenticeship from 1889 to 1893, on the conclusion of which he gained further practical training with Messrs. Frazer and Chalmers, Ltd., Erith, before joining the Silvertown Telegraph Works as an electrical fitter.
He returned to the Royal Arsenal in 1896, and rose from the position of mechanic to the post of foreman in the Royal Laboratory. He had continued his education, meanwhile, at Finsbury Technical College, where he won the Bronze Medal for the mechanical engineering course in 1904 and gained the first prize in 1908, being finally placed second in the honours list in 1910.
During the 1914-18 war he was in charge of the assembly and testing of submarine mines. His next post was that of foreman of the bomb shop, and four years later he filled the same position in the miscellaneous section. Prior to his retirement, which dated from 1935, he had been acting shop manager. He was the inventor of an automatic machine gauge in connection with the manufacture of small arms ammunition. Mr. Seaton, whose death occurred in London on 2nd February 1950 at the age of seventy-nine, was elected a Member of the Institution in 1916. For his long and meritorious service at the Arsenal he was decorated with the Imperial Service Medal in 1936."