TRIBUTES PAID TO MILL OWNER
Engineer, historian Philip Worthington was part of well known family in town
PHILIP Michael Worthington, whose family owned the A. J. Worthington Group, died on January 16 aged 94.
Mr Worthington was one of the breed of young post war engineers who were at the forefront of engineering developments both in the UK and across the world.
He joined WS Atkins & Partners in 1946 rising to become managing director in 1971 and in 1973 head of all the group’s consulting activities by which time the staff had grown to 2,000 people.
Mr Worthington, BSC (Eng) FICE Ceng, was born at Rochemount, Leek in 1926.
He was the second child and eldest son of Lancelot Jukes Worthington and Phyllis Mary (nee Sadler).
The family had become wellestablished in the Leek area having been silk manufacturers from 1830’s when his Great Grandfather had moved to Leek from Malvern.
Paying tribute, daughter Cathy Butler, said: “My dad, whose heart has always been in Leek, was educated at Ashby-de-la-zouch Boy’s Grammar School where he formed the School Signalling Club. In the spirit of the war, membership rapidly rose from 18 to over 70 between January and September 1941.
“Alas it became too popular for the school to manage but not to be deterred he took it beyond the school boundaries and formed the Ashby Signalling Corps.
“He then joined the Air Training Corps in October 1941 – 1944 rising to the rank of senior flight sergeant.
“He was awarded a State bursary to attend University College, Nottingham where he attained a BSC (Engineering) in July 1946 and from there joined WS Atkins. Initially he made his name in stress analysis and then in early 1948 he went to lead the Concrete Control Section at Port Talbot steelworks for which WS Atkins were the consulting civil and structural engineers.
“In 1952 he moved to become the resident engineer at BSA motorcycle works near Birmingham which had been destroyed by German bombing during the war but by mid1953 he had returned to WS Atkins at Swansea before being recalled to head office in 1955. In the 1960’s he led the strategic planning arm of the company which covered countries such as Argentina, Canada, Ethiopia, Israel, India, New Zealand, Tunisia, Morocco and West Africa.
“In 1968 he led the Group’s growing commercial operations and in 1976 joined the steering group of eight people whose object was to establish the British Moroccan Society.
“He left WS Atkins in 1977.
“Stints followed with Babcock Turnkey Operations, a subsidiary of Babcock International and the Major Projects Association before deciding to join the family business. A.J. Worthington Group had been floated in 1954 but by 1982 dad and his four siblings had increased the family share from 12.5 per cent to 55.4 per cent.
“After some initial success the economic downturn of the 1980’s hit the textile and clothing industry hard.
“Losses followed and Philip with two other directors managed to partially recover the situation from making a loss in 1984 to build the company with a succession of mergers and restore profitability. He stayed with the business until retirement in 1998.”
Mr Worthington’s interests were varied.
In his early life his passion had been sailing and he owned an 18 foot quarter decked gaff-rigged sloop and was lent a 30 foot 10 ton Bermudan Cutter in Chichester.
He was also a keen horseman, breeding young stock and rode to hounds and was known to inspect works from horseback as he considered this provided a better perspective.
But his life-long hobby has been genealogy.
His first book The Worthington Families of Medieval England covering 12th-17th centuries was published in 1985.
His second, The Worthingtons of Failsworth and Their Descendants covered 17th – 20th centuries. His final volume Worthington Families of the Seventeenth Century was published six months prior to his death.
He married first Gillian Atkins in 1955, they were divorced in 1980 and secondly Judith Hamlin in 1986. He left a son and daughter from his first marriage and a daughter from his second marriage.
A private funeral will take place St Luke’s Church in Leek, Staffordshire on Friday, February 12 at 12pm.
Mr Worthington will be buried in the family tomb at St Luke’s Church.