Funeral of distinguished steel chief - 29th. June 2004
The funeral of former
Master Cutler Bernard Cotton, 83, has taken place at Ranmoor Church.
Mr Cotton, former chairman
and chief executive of the Samuel Osborn steel group, became Master Cutler
in 1979.
Bernard Cotton was born
in Sheffield, educated at Sheffield City Grammar School and studied metallurgy
at Sheffield University. During the Second World War, he served in the
York and Lancaster Regiment, surviving Dunkirk and going on to the Border
Regiment of the 1st Airborne Division and was a gunnery officer in the
Worcestershire Yeomanry and in the 6th Airborne Division. He took part
in the landing across the Rhine by glider and served in India and Palestine.
After the War he joined Marsh Brothers in Sheffield, moving to the Round Oak steelworks in Worcestershire and London before joining Samuel Osborn in 1969 at the age of 49. He was general manager in Canada until 1963 when he returned to Sheffield to become sales director then took charge of Osborn's steel division, as well as its marketing and long-range forecasting operations. He became chairman and chief executive of Osborn's in 1969 and president after it was taken over by Aurora in 1978.
After his year as Master
Cutler, Mr Cotton went on to own and run a steel forgings company in Manchester.
In 1985 he became chairman
of the South Yorkshire residuary body which wound up the affairs of the
county council. Mr Cotton was president of the Yorkshire and Humberside
Development Association, chairman of the Yorkshire and Humberside economic
planning council and deputy chairman of governors of the then Sheffield
City Polytechnic, chairman of the Health Service supply council and pro-chancellor
of Sheffield University.
He was awarded a CBE
in 1976 and became an honorary fellow of the polytechnic in 1980.