Oscar Sydney Marks, M.C., died at Penang on 21st September, 1948, at the age of 65.
He was educated at Rugby School and from 1898 to 1903 studied at the Royal School of Mines and obtained an Associateship in Metallurgy. He was employed for a year by the Australian Alluvial Gold Syndicate, Ltd., at Kiandra, N.S.W., and then spent a further year as general assistant on the properties of the Gibraltar Consolidated Gold Mines, Ltd., Mount Boppy Gold Mines, Ltd., and the Tasmania Gold Mines, Ltd.
From 1906 to 1907 he worked as dredging engineer at the Phoenix Gold Dredging Co., Ltd., and after returning for a brief period to England went to Sweden to report on mineral deposits for a London syndicate. From 1908 to 1909 he was employed as assistant manager to Nevada Golden Eagle Mining Co., Ltd., and on his return to England in 1910 was sent to Madagascar by the Cie Lyonnaise de Madagascar to report on their alluvial and reef deposits.
His next position was with Messrs. Job Brothers of St. Johns, Newfoundland, reporting on deposits in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in February, 1912, he left for Bolivia in the service of the Incahuara Dredging Co., Ltd. He visited California on behalf of the Santa Maria Oilfields of California just before the 1914-1918 war.
Mr. Marks served with the 23rd London Regiment during that war, with the rank of captain, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar.
From 1919 to 1924 he was employed in Burma and India as consulting engineer to Messrs. Marshall Cottrell & Co., of Rangoon, and the Rangoon Trading Co., Ltd., and from 1924 to 1926 was manager of Lyndhurst Deep Levels, Ltd., West Africa. From 1926 to 1927 he managed Associated Tin Mines of Nigeria, Ltd., and spent the next three years in Australia as general manager of Tingah Tin Mines, Ltd., N.S.W. ln 1931 Mr. Marks was appointed general manager of F.P.H. Trust and General Mines Investments, Ltd., Gold Coast, and hold this position until 1937, when he went to British Guiana for two years in the capacity of general manager of British Guiana Consolidated Goldfields.
He returned to England in 1939 as group manager of the Aycliffe Filling Factory of the Ministry of Supply, and in 1943 joined the Directorate of Opencast Coal Production, Ministry of Fuel and Power, at Leeds, where he worked for three years.
Mr. Marks had been in Burma since 1916, when he was appointed general manager of Consolidated Tin Mines of Burma, Ltd., and his death was brought about by an attack of pleurisy for which he had gone to Penang to receive medical treatment.
He was elected to Associateship of the Institution in 1913.
Vol. 58, Trans IMM 1948-49, p.590
