George Lee was born in 1840 in Eckington, Derbyshire, the son of James Lee (c.1812-1884) and his wife Frances (c.1819-1884).  His younger brother was James Lee.  His father was an agricultural labourer, who by 1851 had moved to Sheffield, where George and James become involved in the Britannia metal trade.  By 1861, George Lee was a Britannia metal smith, living with Joseph Brown, with whom he launched Brown & Lee (manufacturers of Britannia metal and electro-plate wares, Rockingham Street).  In 1868 – after Brown’s death – George Lee was trading in Rockingham Street.  By 1871, he was listed at Fitzwilliam Street as a partner with John Eadon Reaney in Reaney, Lee & Co, which made electro-plate and Britannia metal products in Eldon Street.  This firm was bankrupt by 1873.  In the late 1870s, George and his brother James formed Lee Bros, Spring Works, Eldon Street.  According to the Census, George employed 12 hands.  After Lee Bros was dissolved in 1883, George partnered William James White in Lee, White & Co, Eldon Street.  That partnership was dissolved in 1888 and the stock auctioned (Sheffield Independent, 25 July 1888). 

George Lee & Co was formed in the aftermath at 87½ Eldon Street and was listed in that street until 1932.  The company was listed at 117 Eldon Street in Kelly's Directory of the Engineering, Hardware & Metal Trades, 1934.  George Lee was buried in Norton cemetery on 2 January 1914, aged 73.  George’s son Albert Edward Lee (1868-1953), living in Meersbrook, became the senior partner. Walter Talbot Wingfield (1879-1946) and his brother Charles Edward Wingfield (born c.1884) were also directors.  The former had previously been a partner in Marples, Wingfield & Wilkins.  He died on 5 December 1946, leaving £5,243.  The firm apparently remained in the Lee family’s hands until after the Second World War, at a St Mary Street address between 1933 and 1967.  Albert Edward Lee, Little Norton Lane, died on 20 October 1954.  He left £267.  The firm was taken over by Julius Isaacs & Co in 1967 but was still listed in Mary Street in 1974.  The trade mark was ‘ARCADIA’.  The name passed to Pinder Bros.