Charles McDermid died at Bexhill-on-Sea on 7th of May, 1952, at the age of 83.
Born at Darlington and educated privately, he became assistant private secretary to the late Sir David Dale, at that time Chairman of the North Eastern Railway Co. He then took a post as Assistant Secretary to the Iron and Steel Institute at the headquarters in London. In 1900 he was appointed Secretary of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, an office which he filled with distinction until his retirement in 1939. The volumes of the Transactions of the Institution, compiled and edited under his direction during his term of office, form a lasting memorial to his work.
In 1900 he also became Secretary of the Institution of Mining Engineers when the offices of both Institutions were located at Cleveland House, City Road, E.C. The Libraries of the two Institutions were merged and the close collaboration which then began has since been maintained to their mutual advantage. On his retirement in 1939, he was succeeded as Secretary of the Institution of Mining Engineers by his younger son, Major John McDermid, T.D., but on the outbreak of war shortly afterwards, when his son was mobilized for active service, Mr. McDermid resumed his work for that Institution. It was, therefore, not until 1945 when Major McDermid was released from service that Mr. McDermid finally retired from active work.
His highly valued services to the mining and metallurgical professions received recognition by his election to Honorary Membership, both of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and of the Institution of Mining Engineers. He was also an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and a Corresponding Member of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Dr. S.W. Smith, Past-President writes: In adding a personal note to the above record of Mr. Charles McDermid’s manifold services to the mining and metallurgical professions and, in particular to our own Institution, many happy memories are evoked, reaching back for more than 50 years. My first meeting with him was during his frequent visits to the Mint as the emissary of Bennett Brough, with whom he was serving as Assistant Secretary to the Iron and Steel Institute during Roberts-Austen’s Presidency of that body from 1899 to 1901. To have been with Bennett Brough and in the course of his work to have met the leading ironmasters of the day, must have been an experience of inestimable value to have brought to the affairs of our Institution in 1900.
It was, however, during a memorable Summer Excursion of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1908-from East to West — under the leadership of the late Willet G. Miller, that our friendship ripened by our daily association, sharing many novel experiences on those long journeyings. It was, perhaps, those experiences in Canada that gave him an insight into the difficulties which beset those who organize such excursions and that stood him in such good stead in later years when he, himself, as General Secretary of the Empire Council of Mining and Metallurgical Institutions, directed the Empire Congresses so successfully at Wembley in 1924, in Canada in 1927 and in South Africa in 1930.
It was in 1903 that McDermid undertook and played an important part in what may be regarded as an ‘extra-mural’ activity, that of acting as Honorary Secretary of the Bessemer Memorial Fund. Under the Chairmanship of the Lord Mayor, a representative meeting had been held at the Mansion House to inaugurate a Memorial to Sir Henry Bessemer which should have as its object ‘some educational work as far-reaching in its beneficent influence as the results of Bessemer’s great invention’. During the years that followed, McDermid’s name was appended to numerous memoranda and lengthy correspondence while the large sums of money that became available were being suitably allocated for the purposes which had been envisaged. His association with the developments which culminated in the establishment of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, continued in the years that followed and from 1931 until 1947 he served as a member of the Governing Body.
Tributes to his services as Secretary of the Institution, and, from 1920 onwards, also as Secretary of the Institution of Mining Engineers, were paid, from year to year, by those who moved votes of thanks to the retiring Councils and to the permanent staffs. A wealth of metaphor was invoked to give expression to the appreciation of his work in furthering the interests of the Institution and of its members. His good fellowship and his keen sense of humour brought him hosts of friends. There can have been few places in the world where metalliferous mining was carried on during his term of office where his name and sterling character were not known and appreciated by those whose profession he served. Here, in London, where he was always accessible to members and overseas visitors, he had an unconscious genius for conveying to them his respect and deference towards their positions and to their attainment’s. One rarely heard a word of criticism. He always looked for the good qualities and quietly overlooked any failings.
A long succession of Presidents of the Institution have owed much to him for his guidance and for his unfailing courtesy during their terms of office.
Vol. 61, Trans IMM 1951-52, pp.503-4
