Ernest William Byrde, M.C., Croix de Guerra (France), died at Kaduna, Nigeria, on February 2nd, 1946, at the age of 68.
He was a student at the Royal School of Mines from 1896 to 1901, and graduated in 1900 with the A.R.S.M. in Mining.
He left England to join the staff of the Borneo Co.’s Bidi gold mine in Sarawak, where he remained for four years. He was on the Gold Coast from 1905-6 as assistant metallurgist at Abbontiakoon Block I, and visited Norway and Siberia professionally in 1907, joining the staff of Cie des Mines de Siguiri, Haute Guinée, in the same year. From 1909 to 1911 Mr. Byrde was assistant and acting manager at Mawchi tin and wolfram mines of the Shan States Syndicate, and for the following two years was employed by Naraguta Tin Mines, Northern Nigeria, where he also held the position of Honorary Secretary of the Nigerian Chamber of Mines.
In 1913 he did some surveying on the Lafon river, and then spent a year in British Columbia on the Sullivan mine, Kimberley, and in 1914 became manager of a copper mine of the Anglo-Orient Syndicate in Turkey.
During the 1914-18 war he served with the Royal Engineers in France and Flanders, being commissioned in 1915 and attaining the rank of major. He was mentioned in despatches, and was awarded the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre (France) with Citation.
From 1920-21 he took a refresher course at the Royal School of Mines and was then appointed manager of the Kuru Syndicate (later the Jantar Company), Northern Nigeria. He subsequently operated a mine in Nigeria on his own account and was in private practice at Jos until the time of his death.
Mr. Byrde was elected a Student of the Institution in 1901 and was
Vol. 56, Trans I.M.M. 1946-7, p. 611
