Retired UK scrap company owner dies at age 81

A man described by a South London newspaper as a former “scrap metal baron” has died at age 81.

According to an article in the South London Press, Donald “Big Don” Crawley had “employed more than 200 people at six wharves across Deptford and Greenwich” in the London area.

Crawley founded the London Iron and Steel Company and built a scrap metal company that by the 1980s employed more than 200 workers, with an emphasis on export yards such as “the former Parrys Metals yards at Crown Wharf, Dowells Wharf, Anchor Wharf Greenwich [and] Ordnance Wharf,” according to the newspaper.

Crawley, who suffered from dementia in his later years, is survived by his wife Betty, sons Donald (junior), David, Tony, Robert, daughter Lee Battye-Crawley and his grandchildren.