Thomas Udall ( -1885) of Stanier and Co
1885 Obituary [1]
THOMAS UDALL was a native of Dorsetshire, whence he migrated to Newcastle-under-Lyme about 1844. In the latter town he practised as a solicitor for about twenty years, as one of the firm of Stainer, Knight, and Udall, and afterwards of Knight and Udall. His professional duties brought Mr. Udall largely into contact with the chief iron and coal masters in North Staffordshire, and ultimately led to his becoming a partner, about 1866, in the firm of Stainer & Co., of the Silverdale Iron Co., as well as in the works carried on by that firm at Knutton and Chesterton.
The works of the Silverdale Company embraced both collieries and blast furnaces; that of the Knutton and Chesterton Works were limited to the manufacture of finished iron. Not long after Mr. Udall joined these concerns, his firm acquired the collieries and blast furnaces at Apedale, also in North Staffordshire, and at a subsequent date the joint concerns were thrown together as one undertaking with the name of Stainer &. Co.
On the 1st of October 1880, Mr Udall retired from the firm of Stainer & Co. on account of ill-health. He then went on the Continent, and travelled about for four years in the hope of recruiting his energies, but in vain, and he died on the 20th February last at Henley-on-Thames.
Mr. Udall took a keen interest in all that related to the development of the iron and steel industries, and during his connection with the North Staffordshire iron trade the quantities of both iron ore and pig iron produced in that district had more than doubled.
The deceased was an original member of the Iron and Steel Institute.