Charles May (industrialist)

Charles May FRS (4 May 1801, Alton, Hampshire – 10 August 1860) was an English chemist, engineer and astronomer active in the mid-nineteenth century.

[1] Charles was born the son of two Quakers, Samuel, a draper and Ann May.

His brother Francis May was a co-founder of the Bryant and May match-making company.

On 24 April 1824 he married Ann Simms, daughter of Ollive Sims.

May was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 6 April 1843, having been proposed by Dr. George Witt of Bedford, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Herschel.