Mr. F. J. Pistol – The Visionary Behind Embassy Machinery

The following article, originally published in the 1965 edition of Headway magazine, profiles Mr. F. J. Pistol – founder and managing director of Embassy Machine & Tool Co. Ltd.

Mr. F. J. Pistol, the founder and managing director of Embassy Machine & Tool Co. Ltd., began his career by qualifying as an electrical engineer and then worked in various departments of one of Britain’s largest machine tool manufacturing groups. While there he studied mechanical and production engineering in his spare time, and gained Associate Membership of the Institution of Mechanical and Production Engineers. He enlisted as a private in the Army and rose to the rank of major, serving first in R.E.M.E. in the Middle East, and finally as officer in command of a garrison workshop. He then joined the London office of Europe’s largest press manufacturer and became chief engineer. Still seeking new knowledge, he took at the same time an external London University degree in Civil Engineering.

Mr. Pistol accepted the challenge that a new business could be founded purely by courage and technical ability, and in 1953 he formed a one-man concern which he called the Embassy Machine & Tool Co. Today this company represents some of the foremost machine tool manufacturers on the Continent and in the USA, and it has a country-wide sales and service network. The policy of the company has always been: Greater productivity through specialised high-production machinery. It believes that only when Britain’s factories are equipped with the most up-to-date machinery of the best design, irrespective of its origin, will she be able to close the trade gap and regain a healthy balance of payments. Making available to British industry the finest production equipment in the world is Embassy’s contribution.