Cyril Francis Hill died at his home in Hafod, North Wales, on 28th July, 1958. He was almost 80 years old.
Mr. Hill received his technical education at University College, London, both as a day and evening class student, and at King’s College, London.
He was apprenticed in October, 1894, to the locomotive department of the Great Eastern Railway, but the following year he decided to study the metallurgy and chemistry of lead at the firm of Locke, Lancaster and W.W. & R. Johnson and Sons, Ltd., at Millwall, London. He was made assistant manager of their Millwall lead works in 1899 and was appointed works manager two years later, and general works manager in 1903, the company then incorporating the London Lead Smelting Co., Ltd. Mr. Hill became a director in 1909 and continued to hold that office until 1931.
In 1925 Associated Lead Manufacturers, Ltd., which had been formed to rationalize the lead trade, acquired the shares of Locke, Lancaster and W.W. & R. Johnson and Sons, Ltd., and those of Cookson Lead and Antimony Co., Ltd. Mr. Hill joined the board of Associated Lead Manufacturers in 1927 and continued as a director of that company until 1930 when its undertaking was acquired by Goodlass Wall and Lead Industries, Ltd.
In January, 1936, Mr. Hill joined the board of Goodlass Wall and Lead Industries, and continued as a director of that company until 1951, when, having passed the age of 70, he did not seek re-election. He did, however, retain from 1927 until his death the chairmanship of the board of directors of the Mersey White Lead Co., Ltd., to which he had been appointed in 1917.
Mr. Hill joined the Institution as a student in 1902 and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1904 and to full Membership in 1908. He was also a member of the Institute of Physics, the Iron and Steel Institute and the Institute of Metals. He was an honorary fellow and past vice-president of the Royal Microscopical Society, being honorary treasurer for 36 years, and a fellow of the Linnean Society.
Vol. 68, Trans IMM 1958-1959, p.335
