John Henry Bellasis died suddenly at his home in London in September, 1950, at the age of 69.
After attending Henderson’s School of Mines, Truro, from 1897 to 1900, Mr. Bellasis worked at Dolcoath mine, Cornwall, and at the Glasdir copper mine, North Wales.
In 1902 he left for Rhodesia, where he worked successively at the Sabiwa, Antinior, Globe and Phoenix, and Guinea Fowl mines. In 1905 he was appointed assistant consulting engineer at the head office of Rhodesia, Ltd., Bulawayo, and in 1906 became manager of the Colleen Bawn mine.
He then spent a year reporting on mines in California and in 1908 did similar work in Mexico.
Mr. Bellasis returned to the Globe and Phoenix mine, Rhodesia, in 1909 and in the following year was assistant consulting engineer for R.R. Hollins Co. of Salisbury. He joined the staff of the British South Africa Company in 1911 as assistant resident engineer, a post which he held until he again returned to England in 1918.
From 1920 to 1922 he was assistant mining engineer to Bird & Co; (Africa), Ltd., in Tanganyika Territory, in 1923 being appointed acting consulting engineer to Willoughby’s Consolidated Co. For five years from 1924 he was manager of the Rhodesia Premier Syndicate, and from 1929 to 1935 was assistant engineer to the London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Co., Ltd., in Southern Rhodesia. He took up the position of general manager of Watende Mines (Kenya), Ltd., in 1935, and from 1936 to 1938 reported on properties in Australia and New Zealand. He returned to England in 1938, and during the early part of the 1939-1945 war worked as production officer for the Air Ministry. Since the war he had visited the Gold Coast.
Mr. Bellasis was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1914.
Vol. 60, Trans I.M.M. 1950-51, p. 98
