Stanley Horace Ford died suddenly at his home at Blackheath, London, on 3rd January, 1951, at the age of 80.
He received his technical training at the Royal School of Mines, which he entered in 1888, obtaining his Associateship of the School in 1891. He had secured practical mining experience at Carn Brea mine, Cornwall, and Kingswood colliery, Bristol, and had spent several months working on the Newbery-Vautin chlorination process in London before he left England in 1892 to take the post of assayer and prospector with Orange River Estates Co., Ltd., Namaqualand.
In 1893 he joined the City and Suburban Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Johannesburg, as assayer, leaving that company in 1899 on his appointment as general manager of West Rand Mines, Ltd. Three years later he joined the engineering department of Transvaal Gold Fields, Ltd., and in 1903 took over the management of Jumpers Gold Mining Co. From 1904 to 1908 he managed successively the South Randfontein and Windsor Gold Mining Companies, and in the latter year left the Witwatersrand for the Gold Coast. There he spent five years as assistant superintending engineer and six years as superintending engineer of a group of mines controlled by Fanti Consolidated Mines, Ltd., and Chrome Co., Ltd., and in 1922 was appointed consulting engineer to the group, with headquarters in London.
During the following 16 years, Mr. Ford visited many parts of the world to inspect and report on mines and mineral deposits. He was a director of several companies in the Edmund Davies group, and on his retirement from active mining work in 1938 he retained his seat on the Boards of Charterland and General, Ltd., Willoughby’s Consolidated, Ltd., and Northern Rhodesia Co., Ltd., later becoming chairman of the last-named company.
Mr. Ford was elected a Student of the Institution in 1892 — the year of its Foundation — and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1896, and to Membership in 1904. He was a Member of Council from 1934 to 1943 and served as a Vice-President in the three sessions 1936-1939. Since 1944 he had been a member of the Committee of Management of the Benevolent Fund of the Institution, and was Chairman of that Committee from 1947 to 1949.
Mr. C.E. Jobling writes: With the death of S.H. Ford the Institution has lost one of its most dependable and conscientious Members. He had deservedly earned the admiration and esteem of all who knew him. He always avoided what he termed the ‘limelight’, and any public reference to his attainments, achievements or good works, of which there were many, was distasteful to him. His sympathetic nature and consideration for others less fortunately situated were particularly noticeable in his interest in the work of the Benevolent Fund Committee and other charitable organizations. One, in particular, was the Fairbridge Farm School, whose curriculum and objects appealed to his desire for the welfare and advancement of young people I am glad to bear witness for him here, as, having known him for over 50 years and understood him well, I greatly admired his fine character.
Vol. 60, Trans IMM 1950-51, pp.199-200
