Henry William Laws, C.M.G., D.S.O., died in hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, on 19th December, 1954, at the age of 78.
He received his professional training at the Camborne School of Mining from 1891 to 1894, also working at Dolcoath tin mines, and then studied mine surveying for ten months under Mr. Gill Jenkins at Camborne.
Lieut. Col. Laws went to South India in 1895 as assayer and assistant manager to Mysore Maruhalli Gold Mining Co., Ltd., but left at the end of the year on his appointment as local mine manager to Idaho Exploring Co., Ltd., Western Australia. In the following year he was made, in addition, mine manager to Coolgardie Mining Co., Ltd., Port Phillip Gold Co., Ltd., Broad Arrow Gold Co., Ltd., and Dickens Custer Mines, Ltd., and held those appointments until March, 1903, when he made a tour of inspection of mining properties in the Malay Peninsula.
In August, 1903, Lieut.-Col. Laws was appointed chief mining engineer to the Niger Company, Ltd. Some fifty years later the occasion of his arrival on the Bauchi Plateau in December, 1903, was commemorated at a meeting of government representatives and tin miners held at Bukuru in January, 1954, as Lieut.-Col. Laws was the first white man to explore the plateau and discover tin there. A tribute was paid to him not only for his pioneer work but also for his great success in pacifying and uniting the indigenous tribes.
He remained with the Niger Company until 1926, in the capacity of general manager after the 1914-1918 war. During those war years he served with the Tunnelling Companies, R.E., in Gallipoli, Belgium, and France, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was awarded the D.S.O. and made C.M.G.
For ten years after the war he was in partnership with Mr. W.R. Rumbold under the style Laws, Rumbold and Co., consulting engineers, and in 1920 and 1921 took charge of a mineral survey in northeast Siberia.
Lieut.-Col. Laws went to British Columbia in 1930 where he practised as a consultant. From 1935 to 1937 he was consulting engineer to Bullion Placers, Ltd., and later became a director of the Mining Association of British Columbia.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1903 and was transferred to Membership in 1910. He served as Member of Council of the Institution for six years, from 1921 to 1924 and from 1927 to 1930.
Vol. 64, Trans IMM 1954-55, p.643
