Willem Johannes Dirk Kloezeman died in hospital about July, 1945, at the age of 54, after internment by the Japanese in Java.
Of Dutch parentage, he was apprenticed in 1912 to Messrs. Werf-Conrad, Ltd., of Haarlem, Holland, but left in March, 1915, to join the Singkep Tin Mining Co., Ltd., at Singkop, Malacca Straits. In August, 1918, he took up the appointment of assistant manager at Tanjong (Rainbutan), Ltd., for Messrs. Osborne & Chappel, and in 1919 transferred to the post of division manager at Kinta Tin Mines, Ltd., Gopeng. After a few months he was appointed Malayan representative of Messrs. Werf-Conrad, Ltd. He stayed with this firm for seven years and at the same time carried on various mining engineering activities. He acted as consulting mining engineer from 1921 to 1924 for Dr. W.A. Rogers, was managing partner to Foothills Tin Syndicate from 1923 to 1924, and consulting engineer for Sungei Bias Tin, Ltd., and Sungei Hujan Tin, Ltd. In March, 1926, Mr. Kloezeman joined the firm of Lindeteves-Stovis, Inc., engineers and importers, and was in charge of their mining and engineering activities in the Federated Malay States and Siam. Four years later he took over the management of Kay-Yew (Kinta Valley) Tin Mines, Ltd., at Menglembu, Perak, F.M.S., which was later reconstructed as Kay Tin Mines (Kinta), Ltd., of which he was general manager.
He held this position for many years and continued to work in Malaya until the Japanese invasion. No news had been received of him until it was learned that he had been in a Japanese internment camp in Java and had died from exhaustion.
Mr. Kloezeman was elected to Associateship of the Institution in 1933.
Vol. 56, Trans IMM 1946-47, pp.619-20
