James Henry Ronaldson died at his residence, Surbiton, Surrey, on August 5th, 1935, at the age of 76.
From 1875 to 1877 he attended art classes at Edinburgh University, and in the letter year he was articled as a pupil of the late Mr. Archibald Hood and engaged in practical work at his principals collieries in Midlothian and South Wales. At the conclusion of his articles he obtained the Government certificate as at colliery manager.
In 1881 he went to Belgium and had a course at the Liège University in metallurgy, industrial chemistry, and a special course in the physical and analytical laboratory. From 1882 to 1887 he was surveyor and afterwards manager at the collieries of the late Mr. John Galloway in Ayrshire and Cumberland.
In 1886 he went to Australia and was for two years in partnership with Mr. J.R.M. Robertson, as consulting mining engineers engaged in designing and equipping new collieries and reporting on properties. From 1890 to 1896 he was general manager of Mt. Kembla Coal & Oil Co., Ltd., New South Wales. He then started to practise as a consulting mining engineer in Sydney, and until 1901 was engaged in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand in connexion with coal, oil shale, gold, silver, lead, tin, and copper. In the last-named year, he was engaged tor several companies in examining proposed gold-dredging properties in Zululand, Portuguese Manicaland [now in Zimbabwe], and Madagascar. In 1903, he went to Johannesburg, where he practised as consulting engineer in regard to gold, silver and lead, tin, copper, zinc, diamonds, and molybdenum.
In 1905 he was appointed Commissioner for the Government of Cape Colony to report on the mineral resources of Little Namaqualand [an arid region of Namibia and South Africa] for parliamentary purposes. He next held the position for upwards of three years as the representative of the General Mining & Finance Corporation, Ltd, in Rhodesia. Early in 1912, however, he returned to England to practise in London.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Great War, he was engaged in the Ministry of Munitions, but before long he was asked to take over the supervision of the explosives factory of Messrs. Brotherton & Co., in the Midland. After the armistice, he resumed his private practice, and for some years was in partnership with Dr. William Cullen. Subsequently, he devoted himself more particularly to administration, and became director of mining companies. Jointly with Dr. Cullen he contributed a paper, ‘Data on the Use of Explosives in Mining’ (Trans., vol. XXXV, 1925-6).
Mr. Ronaldson was elected a Member of the Institution in 1912.
Vol. 45, Trans I.M.M., 1935-6, pp.520-21
