Joseph Hambleton

Mr. Joseph Hambleton, the Manager of the Dispatch Foundry Company, Limited, entered on his present duties in 1889. He has his private residence in Puketahi Street, Greymouth. Mr Hambleton was born in Manchester, England, in 1811. His father was an engineer by profession and he followed the calling in his native town, where he was for several years with Mr. Isaac Watt-Bolton. Mr Hambleton sought further experience in the United States. He worked on the gunboats of the Mississippi during a time of war, and was employed on Rhodes Island by the noted firm of Corless and Nightingale, patentees of the "Corless" engine. After returning to the Old Country, Mr. Hambleton came out to New Zealand by the ship "Stornoway," and landed at Port Chalmers in 1868. For twelve months he was on the ship "Star of the South," trading between Napier and Auckland. After that, he established himself in Dunedin, where he conducted the Britannia Iron Works for three years. Mr Hambleton then returned to a seafaring life for sixteen years, during which he was in various steamers, as chief, second, and third engineer. Latterly, for five years, he was the chief engineer on the "Hearld," and left that position to take charge of the Dispatch Foundry. Mr Hambleton has been shipwrecked on three occasions, one of which was on the ill-fated "Star of the South," which was wrecked on the Greymouth breakwater. Mr Hambleton married a daughter of the late Mr. William Galbraith, of Nulton Mills, Glasgow, and has three sons and daughters.

Source - "The Cyclopedia Of New Zealand"

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