William Gowland died on June 10th, 1922, in his 80th year.
He was born at Sunderland in 1842, and was originally intended for the medical profession. In fact he actually worked with a doctor in Sheffield for several years after leaving school, but leaving that occupation he became a student at the Royal College of Chemistry in his 23rd year, from which he passed in 1868 to the Royal School of Mines. Two years later he obtained the Associateship in Mining and Metallurgy, and he was awarded the Murchison Medal in Geology and the De La Beche Medal in Mining.
On leaving the R.S.M., he received an appointment as chemist and metallurgist to the Broughton Copper Company, in Manchester, which he held for two years, until he went to the Imperial Mint at Osaka, Japan, as chemist and metallurgist, a position which he occupied for six years. For eleven years following, he acted as assayer, metallurgist and chief of the foreign staff at Osaka, and was for some time adviser to the Imperial Japanese Arsenal. During this long period spent in the East he acquired that comprehensive knowledge of Japanese metallurgical methods for which he afterwards became so deservedly famous. He was also largely responsible for the introduction into Japan of Western metallurgical and chemical practice. On leaving the country in 1889 he was awarded the Order of ‘Chevalier of the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun,’ which was conferred on him by the Emperor in person. For two years after his return to England he acted as chief metallurgist to his first employers, the Broughton Copper Company.
He then became chief examiner to the Board of Education and external examiner to the Royal School of Mines, while practising as a consultant engineer. In 1902 he was appointed Professor of Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines, in succession to the late Sir William Roberts-Austen, and held the position until his retirement in 1909. He resumed the duties for a short period four years later, on the resignation of his successor Professor W.A. Carlyle and until Professor Carpenter was able to take the position. In regard to metallurgy, his chief interest was in the non-ferrous metals, his knowledge of the metallurgy of copper being probably unique. His textbook on ‘Metallurgy of the Common Metals,’ published in 1914, is regarded as the standard work on the subject.
He was a generous contributor to the proceedings of technical societies, including such widely scattered interests as the Royal Society, the Institute of Metals, the Chemical Society, the Society of Chemical Industry, the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Anthropological Society and the Numismatic Society. He took part on many occasions in the discussion of papers presented to the
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, and his Presidential Address on ‘The Chief Advances in Copper Smelting in Modern Times’ (Trans. XXII, 1907-8) was authoritative.
Professor Gowland was elected a Member of the Institution in 1903, occupied the chair as President in 1907-8, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution in 1909 ‘in recognition of his services in the advancement of metallurgical science and education during a long and distinguished career.’
Vol. 32 Trans IMM 1922-3, pp.287-8
