1871
17th May the IEE Founded as the "Society of Telegraph Engineers".

1880
Name changed to the "Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians".

1888
Name became "The Institution of Electrical Engineers".

1902
10th October, Council minute establishes "Leeds Local Section", membership of section 181.

1908
At the Leeds Section's Inaugural chairman's Address Mr H.E. Yerbury, of Sheffield thanked the authorities of Leeds and Sheffield Universities for placing their respective lecture rooms at the disposal of the Section and hoped that in the forthcoming session there would be record attendances. This appears to be the first record of IEE lectures in Sheffield and Mr H. E. Yerbury was the first chairman of the Leeds Section from the city.

In the IEE report to Council for the year 1908/09 the number of meetings held by the Leeds Local Section is given as six in Leeds with no mention of Sheffield. However the report for the following year gave the number of meetings as "seven in Leeds and Sheffield". Thus within six years of the formation of the Section, Sheffield was beginning to play its part and this continued with several Leeds Local Section chairmen resident in Sheffield. However it was to be another ten years before the formation of the Sheffield Sub-Centre and it appears that during the First World War meetings in Sheffield ceased.

1910
IEE "Yorkshire Local Section" formed.

1918
Name of the "Yorkshire Local Section" changed to the "North Midland Centre". Meetings of the Yorkshire Section in Sheffield seemed to have lapsed during the war years but were re-established in the 1918-19 session.

1919
27th March, Council minute authorised the formation of the "Sheffield Sub-Centre". North Midland Centre chairman for the session was W M Selvey a consulting Engineer from Sheffield. In the Institution notes for April 1919 there was the following "In view of the success of the Teesside Sub-Centre a territorial Sub-Centre has been established in Sheffield and others will shortly be established".