George Herbert Skinner

Who was George Herbert Skinner?

George Herbert Skinner was a British shoe and carburettor manufacturer. He was born in April 1872 in the London Borough of Ealing as the son of the shoemaker William Banks Skinner, owner of the company Lilley & Skinner. Herbert Skinner entered the management of Lilley & Skinner and in 1903 he imported from France a car of Léon Bollée. In February 1905 Herbert applied for a full patent for a newly developed carburettor, which was granted in January 1906. George Herbert and his younger brother Thomas Carlisle Skinner formed in August 1910 the Skinners Union, SU Company Limited. It started to produce the originally branded 'The Union Carburettor' which was soon renamed 'The SU carburettor', being an abbreviation of 'Skinners' Union'. Another of the Skinner brothers, John, became a director of the company around 1913.

George Herbert Skinner did not believe in early schooling. His son Herbert Wakefield Banks Skinner was accordingly nine years old before he entered Durston House School at Ealing.