GEORGE WILSON HEATH, M.I.Mech.E., F.R.G.S., M.R.L.,virtually created the firm of Heath & Co., optical and scientific instrument manufacturers. He was apprenticed in 1863 to George Heath, the firm founded by his father in 1845. His apprenticeship terminated in 1870, and two years later he became proprietor of the business. In 1882 the firm was reconstituted as a limited liability company and George Wilson Heath built two factories at Crayford and New Eltham to cope with the firm's growing requirements. He specialized in the design and manufacture of navigational and thermometrical instruments. Mr. Heath's inventions included many mechanical improvements in nautical instruments, ship's compasses, course correctors, sextants, and thermometers, especially those used for marine refrigeration. Mr. Heath had been a Member of the Victoria Institution since 1889. An article on the firm appeared in the Sidcup Times on 29th May 1953, p.7. It states that George Wilson Heath and Frederick Thomas Heath were sons of the founder. George Wilson had two sons, George Andrew (eldest 1881 ~ 10th Sept. 1945) and Harold E. (a director in 1953). His death occurred at Sidcup on 24th May 1937, in his eighty-eighth year. He was buried in Sidcup Cemetery, 126 Foots Cray Lane, Bexley, Greater London, next to his wife Helen Jane (Buist), she died on 6th Oct. 1918, age 70, daughter of Andrew Buist.
Fulwich Hall (Plymouth Brethren) was founded by George Wilson Heath. He conducted tent missions at Dartford, Crayford, Slade Green and Erith. The work at Dartford was commenced in 1905 as a tent mission in Shenley Road. The tent was replaced by a wooden hut, before the present church building was erected. The name Fulwich Hall was derived from the name of the road before it was changed to St. Vincent's Road.
