Mr James Ellis, who has been associated with the Luton works of Messrs George Kent Ltd as manager of the iron foundry for the past four-and-a-half years, has had conferred upon him the honour of being elected President of the British Foundrymen's Association for the ensuing year.

He becomes the possessor of an extremely handsome gold chain of office presented to the Association by the retiring President, Mr W. Mayer, of Dumbarton, in commemoration of his term of office.

Mr Ellis (pictured) has had some 30 years of foundry life. His early days were spent in various 'shops' in London, and eventually he was promoted by Messrs Bryan Donkin Ltd from the position of chief foreman in London to that of chief manager at Chesterfield. After 10 years with that firm he removed to Messrs John I. Thorneycroft, the torpedo boat builders, at Northampton, with whom he had another 10 years before migrating to Luton.

One of the founders of the British Foundrymen's Association, he has served on the Council ever since its inauguration some 12 years ago, and he is the first Southerner to succeed to the presidency.

The British Foundrymen's Association is a purely educational body, and usually its annual meetings are held in the town from which the President elect hails, but in consequence of the war the customary conference, visits to works and social functions were dispensed with, and London was selected as a central venue for a purely business meeting.

The proceedings took place in the Connaught Rooms on Saturday week [June 24th, 1916], and Luton was represented by Messrs T. A. Aitken, J. W. Worrall (Commercial Cars), R. Coulson, A. Andrews and H. Ellis (Kent's).

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, July 3rd, 1916]