James Sidney Drewry

James Sidney Drewry (1882 to 1952) was a British mechanical engineer who designed road and rail vehicles and became joint managing director of Shelvoke and Drewry. Born in London, he began in his family's cycle business at Herne Hill and joined the De Dion company as a junior engineer. Grace's Guide records that he worked on the construction of the Cape to Cairo Railway between 1901 and 1904, was a director of the Drewry Car Company, which made railway cars, from 1904 to 1908, and then spent three years with BSA. From 1911 to 1922 he was chief engineer of the Lacre Motor Company, and in 1914 he and Lacre patented an apparatus for proportioning, vaporizing and carburetting fuel for internal combustion engines. He also took a patent for lifting jacks in 1916. The 1953 obituary says he did a great deal of work in the design and production of road and rail cars and that he retired from Shelvoke and Drewry in 1936. He died at Letchworth on 14 December 1952.