James Hart Fawcett died of heart failure at Miranda de Ebro, Spain, on November 20th, 1920, aged 65 years.
He was born in Cumberland on April 29th, 1855, and while still a child went with his parents to Australia, where he became associated with Broken Hill in its early history. He was the first assayer in the locality in 1883, and pegged out a number of claims, one of which bears his name. He became chief assayer of the Broken Hill Proprietary, and in 1892 was transferred to London to take charge of the metallurgical department of that company. In 1894 he went back to Australia to undertake exploration and investigation work for a firm of metal brokers. Following this, he went to Italy, where he was general manager for the Etruscan Copper Co. Returning to Australia he had headquarters in Melbourne as one of the engineers attached to the firm of Bewick, Moreing & Co., and later he conducted a general consulting practice which necessitated visiting many of the mines in Australia and others further afield. He was still later engaged in a study of diamond mining in South Africa.
Mr. Fawcett was elected a Member of the Institution in 1892.
Vol. 30, Trans IMM 1920-21, pp.470-71
