Richard Stanley Cumpston

The CYCLOPEDIA OF WESTERN AUSTRALlA, Vol I (1915) has an article on Richard Stanley Cumpston who was the proprietor of the Cumpston Engraving Works and the City Electric Engraving Works. Cumpston seems to have started the City Electric Engraving works in 1902, and Cumpston’s Engraving Works operated concurrently.

An early record of the Cumpston Engraving works is referenced in the the Australian Veterinary History Record, July 2007, No. 49

Official seal
The regulations for the 1911 Act stipulated that certificates should carry an official seal so, in 1913, the board arranged to have a seal made by a company named Cumpston’s Engraving Works at a cost of £4/10/-. Mr Gibbs of South Perth was asked to make a drawing of a Hackney stallion named Matchless Methias and this design was to be used in the seal. The seal was to incorporate the words “The Veterinary Board of Western Australia” and a motto “Advance Veterinary Science” written in Latin. Unfortunately the seal has been lost.

There is a later reference in A TRAINING COLLEGE MEMORIAL. (1916, March 28). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), p. 5.

A TRAINING COLLEGE MEMORIAL.
The students of the Claremont Training College who graduated from that institution in 1908 have decided to erect a memorial to the memory of the late Sergeant Frank Mathews of the 11th Battalion who was among the first batch of school teachers to volunteer for active service. After participating in the famous landing at Gallipoli the young soldier was killed by a Turkish sniper on May 8 while in the act of relieving another sergeant in the trenches. A fine brass plate mounted on a polished jarrah back after the shape of the college shield has now been completed by Cumpston’s Engraving Works, and the date of the unveiling has been fixed for April 26 at 3 p.m. This day falls during the Easter vacation, and a large number of students of the college have intimated their intention of coming in from the country to pay their respects to the memory of one of the most popular ex-students of the college. The Premier and the Minister for Education have intimated their intention of being present to perform the unveiling ceremony, and over two hundred students and ex-students are expected to be in attendance.