Henry Gustav Simon

Henry Simon was a German born engineer who revolutionised Great Britains flour milling industry and in 1878 founded the engineering companies Henry Simon Ltd and Simon Carves. His second son, Ernest Simon went on to become the first baron of Wythenshawe.

Henry Simon was born in Brieg, Silesia, then a province of Prussia, onJune 1835. His father was a director at one of Germanys first railways, which allowed Henry to spend much of his youth in and among the railways sparking an inclination to study mechanics from an early age. In his teenage years, Henry was witness to the revolutionary ferment of 1848 and gradually grew disillusioned with his native country. When his much loved uncle Heinrich Simon was forced to seek political refuge in Switzerland, Henry followed him and it was here that he went on to gain his Engineering Diploma from Zurich Technical Polytechnical School. Armed solely with this and a surcharge of mental energy and business initiative, Henry moved to Manchester where he would make a lasting name for himself. In 1874 Simon married Mary Jane Lane of Melbourne, Australia who bore him a son, Ingo in 1875 before her death in 1876. Subsequently,in 1878, he married Emily Stoehr who added a further four sons and three daug

Source: Wikipedia