Samuel Coulson (1809-1885) was born and baptised at Chesterfield, the son of John and Sarah.  He became a schoolmaster in Doncaster.  In 1845, he was involved with the establishment of the electro-plate firm of George Walker & Co (later Walker & Hall).   Coulson advanced £150 capital for George Walker – his brother-in-law – to acquire an electro-plate licence from Elkington in Birmingham.  In the 1851 Census, Coulson described himself as ‘Electroplater – Master in the Sheffield Electro Works’, with a workforce of 60.   He left the company two years later and then apparently worked as an insurance agent.  Between 1854 and 1855, he was a partner with Thomas Skinner and J. Hugh Branson in Skinner, Coulson & Branson, which made patent engraved ornamental coffee services in Sycamore Street.  

By 1860, Samuel Coulson & Co, aluminium and patent ornamental silver platers, was launched in London Road.  Coulson lived in Albert Road, Heeley, and employed three men and two women.  In 1865, he was invited by Frederick W. Martino (c.1834-1903) – the inventor of the breech-action for rifles – to manage Sheffield Metal Co Ltd.  This firm was established to work a patent for steel bedstead springs.  Coulson was paid in shares, but when Martino ended his contract and demanded repayment in cash, Coulson was declared bankrupt (Sheffield Independent, 17 January 1866).  In 1870, the company was wound up.  Coulson next worked as a coal merchant.  He was a ‘pensioner’, when he died, aged 76, on 28 September 1885 at Shrewsbury Hospital.  He was buried in the General Cemetery.  He wrote an important account of the start of electro-plating in Sheffield in The Sheffield Independent, 26 July 1881 (re-published, 18 May 1887).  According to Coulson’s daughter (Sheffield Independent, 26 September 1887), her father died a poor man, but was helped in his last days by Henry I. Dixon (see James Dixon & Sons).   She described George Walker as neither just nor honourable in his dealings with her father.