Arthur Dorman

For the English cricketer and clergyman, see Arthur Dorman (cricketer).

Sir Arthur John Dorman, 1st Baronet, KBE (8 August 1848 – 12 February 1931) was a British industrialist.

Sir Arthur Dorman Bt KBE
Born	Arthur John Dorman (1848-08-08)8 August 1848 Ashford, Kent, England
Died	12 February 1931(1931-02-12) (aged 82) Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, England
Education	Christ's Hospital
Engineering career
Discipline	Industrialist
Employer(s)	Dorman Long

Early life

Dorman was born on 8 August 1848, at Ashford, Kent, eldest son of Charles Dorman (1809–1885), of Ashford and Maidstone, a currier in the leather trade, and Emma (died 1914), daughter of Richard Wilson Page.^[1][2] He was educated at Christ's Hospital, then situated in Newgate, London.^[3]

Career

He was sent, at the age of 22, by his family to work at a Stockton-on-Tees ironworks, where a relative was a partner. Dorman started as a puddler and rapidly progressed in his career. In 1875, he went into partnership with Albert de Lande Long to acquire the West Marsh Ironworks in Middlesbrough.^[4] During the 1880s, they exploited the new steelmaking technologies being introduced at that time, including the use of Open hearth furnaces.^[4] Together they built a large industrial concern, Dorman Long, which, by 1914, employed 20,000 people and during the World War I was a major supplier of shells.^[4]

He stood for Parliament, only once, as the Conservative candidate for Cleveland, in 1892. He lost the election gaining 4.2% less than his rival, Henry Fell Pease. It was a seat which leaned on all other occasions of that era very strongly to Pease's Liberal party – with strong support to members of the prominent, equally industrialist, Pease family.

Dorman was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918^[5][4] and created a baronet of Nunthorpe in the County of York on 21 July 1923.^[6][7]

Family

Grey Towers

In 1873, he married Clara Share (died 1933), daughter of George Lockwood, JP, of Stockton-on-Tees.^[1][2] They had four sons and three daughters.^[4] His youngest son, George Lockwood Dorman, was killed in the Second Boer War, and is commemorated in the Dorman Museum.

Sir Arthur Dorman died on 12 February 1931, aged 82, at Grey Towers, his home in Nunthorpe, ^[4] near Middlesbrough. His title was inherited by his eldest son, Bedford Lockwood Dorman.