«1910 1913 1914-1918 »

Henry Hall (Harry) Summers becomes chairman of the company on the death of his brother, James.

Born in 1865 and educated at Malvern School and Owens College, Manchester, he joined the family company in 1889 and had a big influence on the decisions to start galvanising operations at Stalybridge and to build a new sheet galvanising works at Hawarden Bridge. He moved from Globe Works, Stalybridge, to take charge of Hawarden Bridge in 1908. He was not interested in money, only in making more and better steel sheets than anyone else.

Harry was responsible for the formation of the Steel Sheet Trade Organisation, which regulated the selling of sheets in the early part of the 20th century, and was also chairman of the Galvanised Iron Association. In 1913 he chaired the Steelmakers Conference which led to the formation of the Sheet Trade Board.

He and his first wife, Minnie, who died in 1906 aged 38, had three sons, Geoffrey (born 1891), Henry Gordon (b.1897) and Richard Felix (b.1902) and a daughter, Maud (b.1894). The family lived for many years at Cornist Hall, Flint, which he bought in 1908 and was then modernised for him by his architect friend, James France. In January 1917 he married Marjorie Thomson, a London chorus girl. They divorced in 1926.