Allen Barclay was killed whilst engaged on tunnelling operations at the Front as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, his decease being reported from General Headquarters on April 26th, 1915. He was 28 years of age and had been in the Royal Engineers since January.
He received his technical training at the Birmingham University, following a three years’ course in pure science work at Dulwich College, and after taking the B.Sc. Degree in Mining in 1908, was awarded one of the £50 Scholarships of the Institution in conjunction with a post-graduate practical course, which was taken at the Consolidated Langlaagte Mines, Ltd., Transvaal.
Upon the termination of the post-graduate course, for the satisfactory completion of which he received the Institution Certificate, he was given the position of sampler at the mines, and after a few months was appointed assistant surveyor to the Consolidated Langlaagte Mines, and at the same time head surveyor to the New Primrose Gold Mining Co. He remained with the former until the autumn of 1911, and the latter until May, 1912. During this period Mr. Barclay obtained, in 1910, the Transvaal Government Mine Surveyor’s Certificate of Competency.
After returning to England, he was engaged for a short time in the latter part of 1912 on survey work in Cornwall, and spent about two weeks on a copper mine in Norway as sampler.
In January, 1918, he obtained an appointment as drill checker with the Spanish Goldfields, Ltd., in Spain, where he remained until he returned to England to join the Royal Engineers as already stated.
Mr. Barclay was admitted to Studentship of the Institution in 1908, and was transferred to Associateship in 1913.
Vol. 24, Trans I.M.M. 1914-15, p. 502
