George Keith Allen died suddenly in London following a heart attack on 22nd January, 1962. He was 64 years of age.
Born in Australia, Mr. Keith Allen won a four-year State scholarship to Scotch College, Melbourne, and studied mining engineering on a scholarship at the University of Melbourne in 1916-17 and 1920-21, graduating B.M.E. He served with the Australian Flying Corps in Europe during 1918 and 1919.
From 1922 to 1929 he was employed by Rhodesia Broken Hill Development Co., Ltd., first as miner and surveyor, and later chief surveyor, acting mine captain, assistant to the general manager and efficiency engineer. While in Northern Rhodesia Mr. Keith Allen was also engaged in examining and opening up various small prospects and, during a period of leave in Australia in 1927 he assisted in the examination of the Mt. Isa mines, Queensland, by Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, Ltd.
Mr. Keith Allen worked for eight months in the U.S.A. during 1929 and 1930 as miner and timberman at United Verde Copper Co. and Copper Queen Co., as sampler with Miami Copper Co. and as surveyor with Morenci Copper Co., and visited all the large copper mines of Arizona. He returned to Northern Rhodesia in June, 1930, to take up the post of efficiency engineer and shift boss at Nkana mine, remaining there until March, 1932, when he was appointed assistant to the consulting engineer to the British South Africa Co. in London, the late Mr. E.H. Clifford.
In 1935 he joined West African Gold Corporation, Ltd., as engineer. He was promoted chief engineer in 1942 and finally resident director and chief engineer in 1949, spending eight to nine months of the year on the Gold Coast. He resigned in 1954 and from 1st September, 1955, until his death held the position of Reader in Mining at the Royal School of Mines, University of London. In 1958 he joined the Board of Mining Services (P.E.), Ltd., a member of the P.E. Management Group.
Mr. Keith Allen was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1926 and transferred to Membership in 1938. He had been a Member of Council of the Institution since 1942, serving as Vice-President for the three sessions 1946-49, and again during 1956-57. He held the office of President of the Institution for the session 1957-58, and his Presidential Address, ‘Gold mining in Ghana’, was published in the Transaction: (vol. 66, 1956-57).
Mr. Robert Annan writes: ‘In his practice as consulting engineer he was alert to adopt all the modern aids towards increasing efficiency and applied these with the patience and understanding that ensured the co-operation of mine managements. The progress of gold mining in Ghana owed much to his influence, exercised always with modesty and firmness’.
Vol. 71, Trans IMM 1961-2, p.554
