Talk:Joseph Firbank

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"and inspiring confidence in those for whom he had to work"

A Google book search on "and inspiring confidence in those for whom he had to work" returns half a dozen sources. One of them is the source the DNB used: McDermott, Frederick (1887). The life and work of Joseph Firbank, J.P., D.L., railway contractor. Longmans, Green and Company. p. 42.

It is only available online in snippet formation but doing further text searches on the book returns:

Mr. Samuel Laing, the Chairman, at the meeting of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Company, held on July 21 1886, referring to Mr. Firbank's death on the 29th June, 1886, said : —

"Our connection with Mr. Firbank arose first when the present board came into office many years ago, when the company was in great distress. He then was the contractor for the South London and several other heavy works that were going on, and we had considerable negotiations with him, and he certainly behaved in the most liberal manner towards the company in taking payment in preference stock instead of cash, when, if he had insisted upon his right of having cash, we should have had to issue our ordinary stock at 60 or 70 per cent, discount in order to get the money. I am happy to say that it has turned out very well for him, and that the preference stock has become valuable. That established a connection between him and the company which makes us certainly very much regret his loss. I can only say he was an excellent specimen of the Englishmen who rise up not so much by any transcendent talents, as by intelligence and energy, and above all, by honesty, and inspiring confidence in those for whom he had to work. Honesty and thoroughness were his characteristics, and just as he refused to speculate — in the sense of accepting shares for work to be done — so he trusted wholly in his employes when he had once decided to trust to them. ...

The first quote using "the class of" is attributed to the same speech but is phrased slightly differently and would appear to be from another source:

"He was an excellent specimen of the class of Englishmen who rise up not so much by any transcendent talents, as by intelligence and energy, and above all, by honesty, and inspiring confidence in those for whom he had to work." (English mechanic and world of science: with which are incorporated "the Mechanic", "Scientific opinion," and the "British and foreign mechanic". Vol. 46. E. J. Kibblewhite. 1888. p. Page 402.)

--PBS (talk) 03:37, 9 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]