George Drabble

George Wilkinson Drabble (24 April 1824 – 2 October 1899) was a British businessman, known for investing in railways and banks in Argentina and Uruguay, and founding the River Plate Fresh Meat Company.

Business career Drabble arrived in Uruguay in 1847 with his younger brother, Charles Thompson, in the middle of a civil war, to establish an agency for the family firm, called "Drabble Brothers". This agency also had settlements in London, Manchester and Sheffield. He also served as president of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, In June of that year, Drabble went to Argentina replacing the British ambassador in the negotiations. Upstream on the Paraná River, the HMS Beacon was dispatched as gunboat diplomacy to support Drabble's negotiations. The branch manager was released, the liquidation order was rectified, and the gold was returned to the bank. On 25 November 1883, it made its first shipment of refrigerated meat, which arrived successfully in London in January 1884. The main factory was settled in Campana, while a Uruguayan factory was settled in Real de San Carlos, near Colonia. The Uruguayan factory closed in 1888 but still bought sheep from Uruguay, which was then sent to the factory in Argentina. After a fire in 1924 in the Argentine factory, the company had to close down in 1926.

Personal life and death Drabble was born on 24 April 1824 in Sheffield, and he studied at the Sheffield Grammar School. He married Elisabeth White on 11 March 1857 at the St. Andrew's Scots Presbyterian Church and had 5 children. His family home in London was located at No. 1 Pembridge Square. He died on 2 October 1899 of a kidney failure on Sandown, in the Isle of Wight.

In honour to him, there is a railway station called Drabble in the district of General Villegas, Furthermore, in Uruguay, the current town of José Enrique Rodó, grew up around a railway station inaugurated in 1901 under the name of Estación Drabble.