Harry John Skelton founded the Skelton Group of companies in London, England in the year1883. He was an iron and steel merchant.He became a founding member of the British Standards Institute. He also became the Chairman of both the Committee Of Management, London Iron and Steel Exchange and of the Steel and Tinplate Section, London Chamber of Commerce. He published Skelton's Economics Of Iron & Steel. Later, his son, R.A. Skelton published the Steel Construction Handbook