Stanley Walton-Brown

Stanley Walton-Brown was born in Newcastle in 1887, the son of Martin Walton Brown, then a prominent mining engineer who a few years later became Secretary to both the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Mining Engineers and was Editor of their Transactions.

Stanley Walton-Brown was educated at Shrewsbury School and then obtained a Master of Science degree at Armstrong College. Newcastle. The whole of his mining life was spent in Seghill, Northumberland with the Seghill Colliery Co. Ltd. He completed his apprenticeship under C.C. Leach in 1909 and occupied various minor positions at the colliery before becoming Manager in 1911 and General Manager in 1923 on Leach’s death. In 1925 he was made a Director of the Company and in 1927 became Managing Director, a post he retained until the nationalisation of the mines. During the First World War he was a Captain in the Royal Army Service Corps in France and Salonika. In the Second World War he served in the Home Guard from 1 February 1941 having the rank of Major, then Acting Lieutenant-Colonel. His Presidential address to the Institution of Mining Engineers in October 1940 was on the organisation of the Home Guard, especially in relation to the protection of collieries.

Walton-Brown became a Member of the North of England Institute in 1913, served continuously as a member of the Council from 1924 and was twice elected President, in 1940-41 and 1956-57. He was also Chairman of the Examinations Committee for Certificated- Studentship. For many years he was a member of the Council of the Institution of Mining Engineers and also a Vice-President. He made many contributions in papers and discussions to the Transactions and in 1936 was awarded NEIMME’s  G.C. Greenaway Silver Medal for a paper ‘Accident risks and repairs’ in Transactions – Institution of Mining Engineers 91 1935-6, 67-90.

Walton-Brown was an officer with various professional and commercial organisations – President of the National Association of Colliery Managers from 1939-41; a Vice-Chairman of the Northumberland Coal Owners’ Association; Director of Bedlington & Associated Collieries – and was involved in the creation of the British Association of Colliery Management, a professional trade union, becoming National President from 1947 to 1956.

In public life he was for many years a local councillor and a County Magistrate.

Stanley Walton-Brown married Elsie Cairns in 1955.

Walton-Brown died at his home Seghill Hall, Northumberland on 6th August 1960.

(These notes are based mainly on the memoir by R.J.Weeks in Mining engineer 120 1960-61, 157-158)

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