Bp's Head Office
pp. 28-29 · Read in the full issue
Mr. Armstrong Retires Mr.
Mitchell Becomes General Manager
TWO men well known in the South Pacific were affected by a change cth£ general managership of Burns, Fhilp & Co. Ltd., in January Mr Lewis Armstrong, director and general manager of the Co., retired from the latter position (while retaining his seat on the Board), and Mr. Joseph Mitchell, a director of the Co., and a chief executive became general manager.
M^ Armstron g has s P en t a lifetime in the BP service, which he entered exactly 54 years ago. He was sent to Norman ton in 1888, and in 1898 he became manager there, succeeding the late I. C. Amsden.
He became assistant branch inspector in 1903, and chief inspector in 1917; and, in those positions, he not only displayed his outstanding ability, but obtained an in timate knowledge of the almost endless ramifications of the business of the big firm. His appointments as a director in 1922, and as general manager in 1928, followed, almost as a matter of course A quiet, retiring—almost a shy—man, Mr. Armstrong is not widely known out side his own business circle; but all who do know him hold him in high regard, and especially esteem his business ability, his keen, shrewd judgment, and his quiet, unfailing courtesy.
Mr. Joseph Mitchell (“Joe Mitchell”, to hosts of men in the South Seas) was a branch and Islands branch manager for the big firm for 20 years; from 1895 to 1914, his was a well-known figure in many of the Australian and South Pacific ports. His tall and striking personality, his happy and cordial greeting for all men, and his industry and shrewdness as a trader, all made him conspicuous; and when well-merited promotion took him away to San Francisco as manager in 1917-19, and to head office, Sydney, as director and executive, after 1919, it was felt that the field staff had suffered a direct loss. Because of his intimate knowledge of Islands places and per sonnel, and of the infinite ramifications of the copra market and the shipping conditions relating thereto, he has been
Mr. Lewis Armstrong.
a source of great strength to BP during the past difficult 20 years. Since it was ordained that Mr. Armstrong should now retire, the welfare of the great South Seas organisation, in these supremely critical times, could be entrusted to no more experienced and capable hands than those of “J.M.”. But none will envy him his job.
Mr. Mitchell was born in 1874, and he joined the BP staff in 1891. He is an active director of nearly a dozen BP subsidiaries, Mrs. H. Sahodar Singh, wife of a well known Indian resident of Suva, Fiji, died suddenly early in January. She was the sister of Mr. John F. Grant, proprietor of the Lilac Theatre, Suva, who received the MBE in the New Year’s Honours.
Miss E. M. McKindlay, who has been sister-in-charge of the Methodist Mis sion’s dispensary at Dilkusha, Nausori, Fiji, resigned in December and returned to Victoria.
Mrs. Rachel Sunderland, wife of Mr.
Christopher Sunderland, of Fiji, died in Sydney recently. She lived in the Colony for over 40 years, first at Ellington Estate, Ra, and then in Suva; a short time ago, she came to reside in Australia owing to ill-health. She is survived by her husband and son, Mr. Les. Sunderland.