George Pyman (1 May 1822 – 22 November 1900) was a British shipping magnate born in

Sandsend Sandsend is a small fishing village, near to Whitby in the Scarborough (borough), Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Civil parishes of England, civil parish of Lythe. It is the birthplace of fishing magnate ...

, in the

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

district of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Biography

George Pyman was the eldest son of James Pyman and Jane Arr. He was only ten when he took the place in the family fishing coble of his uncle John, who had died. At twelve he became an assistant to the store-keeper in

Lythe Lythe is a small village and large civil parish, in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England, situated near Whitby within the North York Moors National Park. The name of the village derives from Old Norse and means hill or slope. ...

, but returned to the sea as a bound apprentice a few years later, on a brig called the ''Endymion'' trading with America and in the Baltics. George rose through the ranks, and by the age of twenty-one he was already a captain. His next step was to purchase part of a brig, and over the next few years he left the sea for good, settled in

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed in ...

and entered into a partnership with Thomas Scurr as shipbrokers for the local

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. After Scurr's death he formed his own company, George Pyman and Co. and started to make his mark on the shipping world. George's major contribution to shipping was in being one of the first to use the iron screw collier ships, which dramatically cut voyage times. Following on from that, his firms built 38 steamers and were established in coal exporting in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. George became then the largest steamship owner on the north-east coast, and was appointed Vice-Consul for

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Away from his business, George was one of the driving forces behind the growth of West Hartlepool, being elected a

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

Guardian in 1861, an Improvement Commissioner in 1868, and sitting on the Durham County Bench from 1872. In 1888 he was elected the second Mayor of West Hartlepool, was granted a coat of arms in the 1880s, and was finally made a Freeman of the Borough in 1895.

References

* * 1822 births 1900 deaths People from the Borough of Scarborough People from West Hartlepool English merchants 19th-century English businesspeople {{England-bio-stub