Valentine Belfitt Vickers (1872-1929) was born in Dukinfield, Lancashire, the son of John Vickers and his wife, Annis. Valentine’s father was a publican and grocer, who in 1881 was running the Red Lion public house in Braithwell, near Doncaster. Valentine was lodging in Sheffield by 1891, where he was a ‘blind manufacturer’s apprentice’. He became a traveller in the German silver and brass trade and by 1905 was operating V. B. Vickers & Co, spoon and fork (blank) manufacturer, in....