Pocklington, Thomas, 1882-1962

Identity area

Type of entity

Person

Authorized form of name

Pocklington, Thomas, 1882-1962

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

    • https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106132309

    Other form(s) of name

    • Pocklington, Thomas

    Identifiers for corporate bodies

    Description area

    Dates of existence

    1882-1962

    History

    Thomas Pocklington was born in Vange, Essex, United Kingdom in 1882. He was apprenticed in London in 1894 to W.F. Stanley Limited, manufacturer of mathematical and drafting tools. He first moved to North America to work for Keuffel and Esser Company, a drafting instrument and supply manufacturer, in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. He immigrated to Canada circa 1905 to work for Consolidated Optical Company, in Toronto, Ontario, under L.G. Emsden. At Consolidated, he was asked to establish an Instrument Making Division and was at some point named Superintendent. During the First World War, he was called to work at Dominion Steel Products in Brandford, Ontario, where they were fixing alignment problems with navy guns. In 1919, Pocklington returned to Toronto and continued working for Consolidated. The company was sold to J. Frank Raw Ltd in 1925. He worked at the new company briefly before establishing his own company, Thomas Pocklington Limited, later that year. Sometimes listed as Thomas Pocklington Instrument Company, the business was renamed Thomas Pocklington and Son Limited ca. 1943 when Thomas’s son, William Carey Pocklington returned to Toronto to serve as its Director. Thomas’s wife, Mary, was Secretary-Treasurer of the company. From 1925 to 1940 the company occupied a location near what is now the Eaton Centre; from 1940 to 1953 they occupied 30 Bridgman Ave (presently Tarragon Theatre); from 1953 to 1992 they occupied 208 Weston Rd. William Carey’s son, Ronald Gordon Pocklington, led the business under the new name Pocklington Survey Equipment until it was dissolved in 1992. Thomas Pocklington, its founder, died in Toronto in 1962.

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    Internal structures/genealogy

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    Authority record identifier

    Institution identifier

    Rules and/or conventions used

    Following RAD rule 22.12A, preferred form of name was formed with dates in order to distinguish this person from several other Thomas Pocklingtons.

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    Dates of creation, revision and deletion

    Description by David McGee, 2012. Revised by A. Torrance with draft French version, 2021. French editing by Céline Mongeau, Larocque Linguistic Services, 2021-02.

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        Sources

        -Brooks, Randall C. (January 2006), “A Conversation with an Instrument Maker,” Rittenhouse, 20, 65-92. Accessed online 2021-01-14: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275152959_A_Conversation_with_an_Instrument_Maker
        -Brooks, Randall C. (1997). “The Brightly Circular Dividing Engine,” Rittenhouse, 11, 75-80. Accessed online 2021-01-14: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275152995_The_Brightly_Circular_Dividing_Engine
        -Brooks, Randall C. and Daniels, William J. (1 December 1993). “Surveying instrument makers of Central Canada.” Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering. Vol. 20, no. 6. https://doi.org/10.1139/l93-134
        -Might's Greater Toronto city directory, 1952. (1952). Toronto, Might Directories. Toronto Public Library copy accessed online in the Internet Archive, 2021-01-15: https://archive.org/details/torontocitydirectory1952/page/n1405/mode/2up
        -Jones, Sian. (2021). Email to Adele Torrance, January 13.
        -Pantalony, David. (2007). Acquisition Proposal for seven artifacts related to Thomas Pocklington. Ingenium internal document. Enterprise ID #1815696.

        Maintenance notes