05.08.2012

Bert Richardson 1923 - 2012

We have received the news that former chief engineer of Priestman Bert Richardson died recently in Australia where he had retired in 1988, he was 89. His wife Frances pre-deceased him.

Richardson held numerous patents for crane and excavator developments including one covering an innovative slew ring design using alternatively offset rollers.
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Bert Richardson and his wife Frances - Sydney 2003

Colleague Dick Lloyd has provided the following obituary:

“Bert Richardson joined Priestman in 1940 at the age of 16, as an apprentice and rose rapidly through the ranks becoming chief excavator designer in 1957, following a four year sojourn in the USA where the company posted him to study American excavator design.

He was responsible for the innovative design of the famous Priestman Lion Excavator/Crane, probably the most sophisticated mechanical machine ever produced, with its totally enclosed gearing and pumped lubrication system. It is a tribute to Bert that there are so many Priestman Lion cranes still in operation today with small users.

Bert was chief engineer when I joined Priestman from Hymac to take over the running of export sales. Hymac suborned him to join them in 1972, and I desperately tried to stop him from leaving, knowing his value and, with hindsight, I am still convinced that I was right, as we needed his expertise as we moved from the mechanical into the hydraulic era. I still believe that the Priestman Mustang 120, the design of which Bert was also responsible, was the most solidly constructed, and, in its final Mark III version, the most reliable fully British designed hydraulic excavator ever produced.

When IBH (the Horst Dieter Esch conglomerate) took over Hymac from Powell Duffryn, Bert decided to leave Hymac after only seven years, and joined Coles Cranes in Sunderland, working under Bob Lester as engineering services manager until Bob retired. He ended his career as engineering director in Gateshead for a long established mining equipment manufacturer for three years, and did a couple of years of independent consultancy work until he finally retired in 1988, joining his daughters in Australia.

Bert was a man of enthusiasm, knowledge and great experience, widely known and respected throughout the construction equipment industry. I visited him in 2003, and Bill Bromwich, the erstwhile publicity manager of Priestman who is much involved in compiling a history of the company, kept closely in touch with him also and has been of invaluable assistance to me in writing this tribute to a warm-hearted and much loved old colleague.”