Francis Freathey Oats died on 16th August, 1954, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after a long illness. He was 74 years of age.
Born in Kimberley, South Africa, he was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, from 1896 to 1899 and served in the Boer War as sapper in the Royal Engineers and later as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse. In 1900-1901 he visited South America with his father (a director of De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd.) to examine diamond occurrences in British Guiana and Brazil and the tin mines of Bolivia. On his return to England he was for two years an agent in Bassett Mines, Ltd., Redruth, leaving in 1903 to study at the Freiberg School of Mines, Saxony. He obtained his diploma in mining in March, 1909, and returned to Cornwall where until 1914 he was occupied with mining interests, with the exception of a visit in 1912 to German South West Africa.
A keen member of the Territorial Army, Colonel Oats served throughout the first world war in the Royal Artillery. He commanded the Cornwall and Warwick Medium Brigade, R.A.(T.) in East Africa and on the Somme, and was mentioned in dispatches. In all, his Territorial Service lasted for 40 years. He received the Territorial Decoration, and from 1925 until 1931 was Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall.
Colonel Oats was a director of Basset Mines, Bissoe Tin Works and Levant Mine. In 1920 he took over the management of Levant and continued until the mine was closed in 1930. During the following two years he was in South Africa with Cape Asbestos Co., Ltd., and from 1932 until 1936 worked gold properties in the Republic of Colombia. He then returned to Cornwall and in 1939 converted his home at Cape Cornwall into an hotel, which he and his wife managed until 1948. During the second world war he was also in charge of a tin mine at St. Just which had been reopened by the Government. He retired from active work in 1948, but continued to take a great interest in Cornish mining. He was for many years a member of the Cornish Chamber of Mines, and joined the Cornish Mining Development Association on its formation in 1948.
Colonel Oats was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1913.
Vol. 64, Trans IMM 1954-55, p.196
