Hubert Edmund Jeffrey died on 27th February, 1958, at the age of 62.
Mr. Jeffery attended the Camborne School of Metalliferous Mining between 1911 and 1914 and gained a first-class Diploma with a prize in surveying and assaying, and on leaving Camborne he carried out a complete survey of the Stannon Clay works at St. Austell.
He enlisted in August 1914, as a private in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and left in October for India with his regiment. In May, 1915, he was chosen from the Battalion to join the 6th Division in Mesopotamia where he served for two years with the Indian Expeditionary Force. He was commissioned in August, 1917, in the Devon Regiment and served again in Mesopotamia until April, 1918, when he returned to India on transfer to the 1st King George’s Own Sappers and Miners. Subsequently Mr. Jeffery served with the Bushire Field Force (Persia) with the 54th Field Company, and was one of the officers responsible for laying out and constructing the 150-mile road between Bushire and Shiraz. Between 1919 and 1922 he continued service with the 1st K.G.O. Sappers and Miners, and ended his military career with the Waziristan Field Force on the N.W. Frontier, India, retiring from the Army in November, 1922. He was awarded the Officers Efficiency Decoration.
Mr Jeffery took up his first mining appointment early in 1923 as assistant underground agent and surveyor to Nundydroog Mines, Ltd., on the Kolar Gold Field. In 1927 he was appointed chief surveyor of the company, a position he held for 22 years.
During this time he was an active member of the Kolar Gold Field fire rescue brigade, from 1925 until his return to London in 1949 being officer-in-charge of the fire rescue station. During the 1939-45 war Mr. Jeffery served as a major in the K.G.F. Battalion Auxiliary Force, India. He was also honorary secretary and editor of the Kolar Gold Field Mining and Metallurgical Society Bulletin for twelve years, to which he contributed substantially, particularly on the subject of underground fires. His paper published in the Transactions of the Institution (vol. 60, 1950-51), entitled ‘Notes on prevention and fire fighting with particular reference to the Kolar Gold Field’, earned him ‘The Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Limited’ Gold Medal in 1952.
Mr. Jeffery had held the appointment of consultant to Messrs. John Taylor and Sons at their head office in London for the last nine years.
He joined the Institution as a Student in 1914 and was elected to Membership in 1925.
Vol. 68, Trans IMM 1958-59, p.226.
