Donald A. Palmer was born in 1887 in Great Yarmouth, the son of Edward Ernest Palmer (a draper) and his wife Laura.  He served an engineering apprenticeship with Reavell & Co, Ipswich (of which he was later chairman).  During the First World War, he was superintendent of the East Anglian Munitions Committee.  After a spell as director of a London company in the early 1920s, he joined Joseph Rodgers & Sons as general manager in 1926.  He was appointed managing director in 1930 and chairman in 1953.  He was awarded an OBE in 1959.  Palmer was a member of various trade bodies and served as president of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and for twenty-five years was president of the Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers’ Association (Quality, January 1963).   He lived at Sale Hill House, Broomhill, and died there on 10 January 1963, aged 74.  His son, Michael J. A. Palmer, was at that time managing director of Rodgers.