Charles Burrard Kingston died at his home at Forest Row, Sussex, on December 30th, 1943, at the age of 76.
He was born at Montreal and entered McGill University in 1885, graduating B.A. in Mathematics in 1887. After a year’s topographical surveying work in British Columbia he returned to McGill and graduated B.A.Sc. (Mining Engineering) with honours in 1892. The University conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1930. From 1892 until 1895 he was employed as foreman, surveyor and superintendent in silver-lead mines operated through the Cowenhaven Adit (a 2½-mile tunnel at Aspen, Colorado), and from 1895 to 1903 inspected and managed properties in Western Australia, making a short visit to a Siberian copper mine in 1900. In 1903 he went to Italy and spent two years in shaft-sinking and development work at the Val d’Evancon for Messrs. Lewis & Marks. In 1905 he left for South Africa to open up the Grootvlei auriferous area for the same firm, and on the retirement of Dr. F.H. Hatch was appointed consulting engineer for the Lewis & Marks interests in South Africa, a position which he held until 1926. During this long period Dr. Kingston inspected and supervised many mining activities, including the Lonely Reef and Sheba gold mines, the Crown diamond mine, and the firm’s collieries. In 1913 he was asked act as chief witness in the long law-suit in London between the Globe and Phoenix Co. and the Rhodesian Amalgamated Gold Mines, and subsequently became consulting engineer and later a director of the Globe and Phoenix Co., positions which he still held at the time of his death. From 1926 to 1929 he was consulting engineer to the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, Ltd. in connection with the development of that company’s interests in the Northern Rhodesian copper field, but in the latter year retired to England for health reasons.
Dr. Kingston was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1895 and was transferred to Membership in 1903. He had served as Member of Council since 1929, and was President of the Institution during the session 1938-39.
Vol. 54, Trans IMM 1944-45, pp.268-9
[Father of Peter Rooke Kingston]
