William Aloysius Burke died suddenly at his home in Dundee on 26th December, 1956, at the age of 57.
He was born in Scotland and educated in Dundee and served a 5-year apprenticeship there in mechanical engineering, while taking courses of training in engineering in the evenings at Dundee Technical College. His apprenticeship was interrupted while he served for a year with the Royal Air Force during the 1914-18 war.
Mr. Burke’s first mining assignment was in 1920 as assistant engineer to Malayan Tin Dredging, Ltd., working alluvial tin in Malaya for a year, after which he owned and managed a small engineering brass founding and brass finishing business in Dundee from 1921 to 1926. The whole of his career since then was spent in Nigeria.
He left Scotland in the employ of Laws, Rumbold & Co., managers of the Niger Company’s mining interests, then joined Nigerian Base Metals, Ltd., and was placed in charge of tin winning operations as an area manager in 1928. In 1934 he took over the position of chief mechanical engineer and relieving general manager of Gold and Base Metal Mines of Nigeria, Ltd., and of associated companies managed by that company and was made assistant general manager of the group in Nigeria in 1938. He was appointed general manager of the Bisichi Tin Co. (Nigeria), Ltd., in 1947, and in 1950 also became general manager of the Plateaux Areas of Gold and Base Metal Mines of Nigeria, Ltd. He continued in this capacity until his retirement in 1953.
Mr. Burke was elected to Associate Membership of the Institution in 1935.
Vol. 67, Trans I.M.M. 1957-58, p. 283
