In memory of long-standing NAJ Member Michael G S Frampton, OSt.J, TD, JP, FCA
27 Jul 2020
Obituary
We regret to report the death of Michael Frampton, chairman of Sheffield jewellers HL Brown, which has branches in Doncaster, York, Lincoln and Scarborough and is a long-standing member of the NAJ.
Michael was born in Sheffield in 1931 and educated at Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire. He was articled to a firm of accountants in Birmingham, becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1965. Soon after he joined the family firm of HL Brown, succeeding his uncle Denis Brown as managing director in 1972.
Michael did his National Service from 1955 to 1957 in 1st Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment taking part in the Suez campaign, followed by TA service with the Hallamshire Battalion Y&L and the 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Volunteers from which he retired as Second in Command in 1972.
Michael was a family man but also very active in the local and wider communities. He continued the tradition started by his great grandfather Harris Brown, serving as president of the Sheffield and District St John Ambulance Competition Association for nearly 40 years. He served lengthy periods as a Justice of the Peace in Sheffield and Executive Guardian of the Sheffield Assay Office. In 1994 he was appointed High Sheriff of South Yorkshire.
In 1997 he served as Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. It was shortly after the 300th anniversary of the birth of John Harrison, the self-taught Yorkshire craftsman who solved the problem of determining longitude at sea by developing the marine chronometer. Michael was proud, as Master, to erect a plaque at the site of Harrison’s birth near Wakefield, and to help bring Harrison the public recognition he deserved.
He listed his interests as fly fishing, cricket, family golf, family bridge, skiing and woodwork (the ones he prefaces by “family” indicating limited talent – these were his wife Jane’s areas of excellence!)
Amanda Reavell, the recently retired secretary of the NAG, remembers lively conversations with Michael. She says that he was “an active member who kept us on our toes”.
Michael leaves daughter Sarah and son James, who is managing director of HL Brown, the 5th generation of the family and a trustee of the NAJ Educational Trust.
Source: The National Association of Jewellers