Tributes have been paid to John Harrison, who died in April, after a lifetime in the poultry industry..
He was born in 1935, and after school, he worked for hatchery business Thornber, where he rose thought the ranks, maintaining a lifelong friendship with the founder’s grandson Ralph Thornber. After the company’s demise in the late 1960s, Harrison set up Mytholmroyd Hatcheries, to offer hatching to any company outgrowing their own hatchery capacities in a rapidly growing broiler industry.
He later also started his own company called Pneutrans, making egg handling machinery to ease the job of transferring into the hatchers, plus offering other pneumatic aids for handling eggs. These sold around the work and he regularly exhibited his products at the poultry shows in Atlanta and the Pig & Poultry Fair at Stoneleigh.
He was also a director of Avian Techniques, and exported broiler chicks and layer chicks to Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Yemen and Kuwait, travelling around the world with the chicks to ensure their safe arrival.
After retirement, he continued to stay involved with the poultry industry and also enjoyed going on cruises around the USA and Canada. There will be a gathering for a celebration of John’s life at Heptonstall Bowling club on May 24 at 2pm.