Thomas Clifford Peddar died at Valparaiso, Chile, on 27th October, 1949, at the age of 71, after a long and painful illness.
He was born in Suffolk and educated at Ipswich, and then served articles of apprenticeship with Messrs. William Reddall and Son, surveyors to the London County Council, and studied at the Surveyors Institute end Goldsmiths Institute.
He went to Chile in 1895, prospecting and surveying from 1896 to 1898,
and for two years subsequently working for the Peñuelas Waterworks. He was employed by Messrs. Gibbs & Co., of Valparaiso, from 1900, first at the Perga coalfield for two years, and then as acting manager and later manager of two mines under their control Cia Minera de Ojancos Nuevo, where until 1914 Mr. Peddar developed and exploited copper mines south of Copiapó, Atacama Province, and Almagro Gold Syndicate, Ltd., where from 1902 to 1907 he was in charge of tunnelling and exploration of gold-bearing lodes south-east of Copiapó. In 1914 he was appointed general manager of the mines and smelter of Cia de Minas de Cobre de Gatico, Chile, and in 1917 managed the Alianza and Aurelia nitrate works in Antofagasta
and Iquique. He also reported on mining properties for Messrs. Gibbs & Co. and Minerals, Separation, Ltd., until 1925, when he acquired the Chilean weekly newspaper, South Pacific Mail.
Except for a break from 1927 to 1930, when he returned to Gatico as manager, Mr. Peddar remained editor and director of the paper until his death, but was often consulted in his capacity as mining engineer and reported on mines. He was a member of the British Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Peddar was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1915.
Vol. 59, Trans I.M.M., 1949-50, p.?
