Frank Pinney Longmire died in Dorset, on 17th August, 1951, at the age of 69.
He was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, and was educated at Rossall School, leaving in 1899 to serve an apprenticeship with the Moss Bay Hematite Iron, Steel and Coal Co., with whom he remained until 1906. From then until 1909 he was engineer and assayer to Messrs. Harry Dougall & Co., Cumberland, and subsequently spent a year in a similar capacity at La Lima mine in Seville, Spain. In 1910 he was appointed an assistant in the copper smelting departments at Minas de Rio Tinto, remaining in the service of that company until retirement in 1937.
In 1914 Mr. Longmire was mobilized with the Border Regiment and served in France until 1917, obtaining his captaincy in 1915, and transferring to the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, in 1917. In the same year he was invalided home to the Ministry of Munitions (Ore Supplies), returning to Rio Tinto as senior smelter assistant in 1919. From 1928 until 1937 he was chief assistant to the leaching operations of that company.
On his retirement from Spain he became actively interested in the ball-clay industry in Dorset, joining the board of Messrs. B. Fayle & Co., Ltd., a company in which his family had been interested. He became managing director of the company in 1946, and in 1949 brought about its amalgamation with Pike Bros. (Wareham), Ltd., to form the existing company of Pike Bros., Fayle & Co., Ltd. He was a director of several other companies, and a Member of the Poole Harbour Commission.
Mr. Longmire was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1914, and was transferred to Membership in 1949.
Vol. 61, Trans IMM 1951-52, p.527
