George Richards Elkington

[1] In 1843 Elkingtons acquired the rights to Werner von Siemens's first invention, an improvement to the gold and silver plating process.

[2] The Elkingtons opened a new electroplating works in Newhall Street, in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham in 1841, and the following year Josiah Mason, a pen manufacturer, joined the firm[1] and encouraged the Elkingtons to diversify their output, adding more affordable electroplated jewellery and cutlery to the large pieces the company had been producing.

Electroplated wares became very successful in the Victorian market and by 1880 the company employed 1,000 people at the Newhall Street site and had a further six factories.

There is a Blue Plaque commemorating him on the old Elkington Silver Electroplating Works, Newhall Street, Birmingham.

He married Mary Auster Balleney in 1825 and had seven surviving children, Frederick, George, James, Alfred, Howard, Hyla and one girl, Emma.