MR. B. FRA NCIS CAUNT
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WE regret to record the death, on IT December 11, of Mr. Burley Francis Caunt, managing director of Atkinson Vehicles Ltd. and a director of Atkinson Lorries (Holdings)' Ltd. He was 62, having been born in Wolverton, Bucks, in 1902.
In 1919, Francis Caunt joined the road vehicle side of John I. Thornycroft and Co. and was a draughtsman there for a few years before moving to Guy Motors in a similar capacity in 1927. But he stayed with Guy only a few months before taking a development job in the drawing office of Karrier Motors, where he worked closely with the chief engineer on the design of new models; among the projects he worked on was the Karrier Ro-Railer road-rail vehicle.
A move to Leyland Motors led to the position of chief draughtsman, respon
sible for all production design work, and he later gained practical productioncontrol experience as assistant works manager at the Farington and •Chorley tank factories during the war; he became works manager at Chorley before leaving to take up similar tasks with an engineering company in Warwickshire. He was with Leyland for 15 years in all.
Mr. Caunt joined Atkinson as general manager in 1946, understudying the managing director, Mr. H. B. Fielding, whom he succeeded in 1950. Since then his had been the very firm hand guiding vehicle development at Walton-le-Dale, and his particular interest had been in stimulating overseas sales; he made at least one major overseas tour each year and personally supervised the establishment of overseas connections and subsidiaries.