Out and Home. —By "The Extractor."
Page 12
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Mr. F. A. Kelley, the managing director of Mero, Limited, of Sheffield, is a magistrate, and I missed seeing him on a recent visit because it was his day on the Bench. In politics, he is an ardent Conservative, and is helping the great fight against the Licensing Bill. I have noticed some interesting and ably-written letters on this topic, in the London daily Press, from Mr. Kelley's pen.
I was thwarted the other day by a Russian Grand Duke, but only temporarily; Dennis .•Brothers, Limited, enjoys a very satisfactory business in pleasure cars, and the Grand Duke Michael is one of the company's old end loyal friends, and he it was who detained Mr. Raymond Dennis when he should have been in Guildford to meet the shrinking individual who writes these lines, but Mr, Ray saved the situation by his ingratiatory smile, and a few words of explanation. An AngloRusso rupture was thus avoided.
If I were to be asked to name a few of the most popular personalities in the heavy-vehicle section of the motor trade, my mind would assuredly fly to Henry Spurrier, jun., of Leyland Motors, Limited, as one of them. When I see our artist, G. A. Stevens, I shall want to know what he said to Spurrier to cause him to look so solemn, because that is not his usual mien. A man who has revelled in hunting big game in North America, who has scorned the comforts of home and preferred ranching in Canada and Alaska, and who now finds his keenest pleasure in steering a 50h.p. GobronBrillie, and who goes through it all imperturbably, may feel that it is time to look serious when he catches an artist endeavouring to limn his features. Spurrier certainly has had an interesting career. I understand he was born at Marston-on-Dove, in Derbyshire, and, although I have no record of the eventful year, I am told, not by himself, that his family can trace back their forbears for 350 years. He was educated at Upping-ham, and then apprenticed to Fletchers, the engineers, at Manchester. Now, an adventurous and roaming spirit overtook him, and we reach the ranching and big-game hunting epoch before referred to. Back to the Mother-. land once more, and then out to Florida—engaged by the Florida Central Railway—he made an interesting deviation, for he married an American lady. Then we have the founding of the Lancashire steam motor business, and one of its early successes was a steam lawn mower, many of which are still in use ; butit was 1897 that he began to record progress with the steam vehicle, when he took the silver medal (highest award) at the Royal Agricultural Show and trials of that year. The following year, 1898, brought in some prominent rewards : he annexed the -E,too prize (highest award) at the Royal Agricultural Show, and the ,".7too first prize at the trials of the Self-Propelled Traffic Association in Liverpool, and these successes proved the foundation-stone of the business of Levland Motors, Limited, of to-day.
Personally, Spurrier is a man well liked by his employees and his neighhours; he has had a sound engineering experience, and possesses a true business judgment : his natural and frank disposition soon endears him to those with whom he is brought in contact, and, if he has to say " No '' to you, it is sympathetically expressed. Small wonder, then, when you find a man of this type, strict in his methods yet cheery and helpful, that he attracts to himself hosts of well-wishers. He goes his owlway, without decrying other people.