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- W.J. Bassett-Lowke
London Times, 23 Oct 1953
W. J. Bassett-Lowke, the founder of the famous firm of model makers,
of Northampton and High Holborn, died on October 21, 1953 at the age of 76.
Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke was born in 1877 at Northampton.
Engineering was in his blood. His grandfather established the engineering and
boiler-making business of Bassett and Sons in Northampton in 1859. His father
was also and engineer and it was while he was apprenticed to his father
works of J.T. Lowke and Sons that the firm of Bassett-Lowke took shape.
Frustrated by the difficulties of getting well-designed components to meet his
model-making needs, he decided to produce them for himself and for othe
faced with the same problem.
In this he was helped by his father and by his friend, H.F.R.
Franklin. They advertised in the Model Engineer, then just established. A mail
order business sprang up and the firm of Bassett-Lowke was born. The first of
the famous catalogues was issued in 1899. Since then his models of railways,
ships, and engineering equipment, many of them exquisite replicas of their
prototypes, have become world famous.
Bassett-Lowke was a director and one of the founders of the
Northampton Repertory Theatre, and since his election as a member of the
Northampton Town Council in 1930 he played a prominent part in municipal
activities. He retired from the council in 1952, after having been an alderman
for seven years.
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