The founder was Arthur Millward, who was born in Kidderminster.  He was from an old Irish family and apparently proud of his father having served under the Duke of Wellington.  His brother, William, had worked for Elkington in Birmingham and had hit upon the technique of using a solution of bisulphide of carbon for the ‘bright plating’ of electro-plate products.   Arthur took the technology to another Birmingham firm, Ratcliffe’s, which established a factory in Sheffield (see Heeley & Son).  Millward was manager, but later began his own firm in Sheffield, as electro-plater for the trade (Leader, 1919¹).  Millward was listed in 1859 in Eyre Street and ‘quickly built up an extensive and profitable business’ (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 16 November 1910).  According to the Census, he employed 16 workers in 1861; by 1881, the number was 43.  His son, William Eugene Millward (1850-1909), joined the business, which was styled Arthur Millward & Son by 1876.  However, William Eugene, Wostenholm Road, died on 5 December 1909, leaving £10,774.  The business was restyled Millward, Hancock & Co Ltd.  (Hancock is unidentified.) Arthur Millward – reputedly the oldest electro-plater in Sheffield – died at his residence Clifford Lodge, Beauchief, on 15 November 1910, aged 86.   He left £2,130.  The firm apparently ceased trading in the early 1930s, though the name was not struck off until 1952.

^1. Leader, Robert E, ‘The Early History of Electro-Silver Plating,’ Journal of Institute of Metals 22 (1919)