Little is known of the professional engineering career of Mr. F.W. Portass, save that he was born in 1874 in Sutterton, Lincolnshire and then moved to Sheffield where, on the 6th September 1900, he was to marry Lilly Alice Purkiss in the parish of Ecclesall. We might assume that his move to Sheffield was to undertake an apprentice in one of the cities many engineering factories for, in the 1901 census, he's recorded as living at 78 City Road, Sheffield, with his occupation described as a "machine maker--fitter, turner". The couple had one child, Emily Elizabeth Irene, born in 1902 and who later moved first to Canada and then to the United States, where she died in 1994.
When he established F.W.Portass (Machine Tools) Sheffield Ltd. is not known, but the business appears to have thrived from the early 1930 until his death in 1958. The little Adept lathes and shapers were made in Sellers Street, off Abbeydale Road, Sheffield - and possibly also at the very narrow-fronted but deep factory building at 56 Garden Street.
In his will, probate amounted to £2,819 : 14d : 6d which he left to Rose Whitworth (wife of the late Frank Whitworth) and to Neville Harvey Freeman, an engineer - might this have been his assistant and employee?