Harold Granville Smith died suddenly at Leeds University on 13th November 1958, at the age of 49.
Mr. Smith was born in Yorkshire and attended West Leeds High School between 1918 and 1927, and went on to take a course in mining engineering at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1930 with the degree of B.Sc. He then gained practical mining experience working at Beckermet Mining Co., Ltd., in West Cumberland. In 1933, Mr. Smith joined Messrs. Childe and Rowland, civil and mining engineers of Wakefield, and as assistant surveyor did colliery surveying and valuation in West Yorkshire for a year.
Mr. Smith left England in 1934 on his appointment as surveyor for Mawchi Mines, Ltd., Burma, Southern Shan States, and was shortly afterwards promoted to the position of chief surveyor. In 1937 he was made shift boss and in 1940 assistant mine captain, and remained at the tin and Wolfram mines until the Japanese occupation, when he led a large party of civilians and members of the Chinese 6th Army from Burma to India on foot.
He joined the Geological Survey of India in 1943, and for the first two years worked as assistant mining engineer, and later mining engineer in charge of underground development and prospecting at Zwar lead-zinc mine, Mewar State. From 1944 to 1945 he was the engineer responsible for the introduction and maintenance of ‘lease-lend’ mining machinery in an area of the Bihar (India) mica belt, and reported on mica, beryl, talc, tantalite and columbite deposits for the Government of India also doing general consulting work on behalf of the Government.
He returned to England in 1945 and joined the staff of the Mining Department of the University of Leeds as senior lecturer in metal mining and mineral dressing and held this appointment at the time of his death. Mr. Smith did much work at the University in building up the postgraduate and research school of Mineral Dressing and Coal Preparation.
In 1954 Mr. Smith was awarded an I.M.M. Travelling Fellowship under a Nuffield Foundation scheme, and visited mines and plants in Scandinavia.
Several articles were contributed by Mr. Smith to the technical press, both in the United Kingdom and abroad, and he was co-author of a paper presented at the 1957 International Mineral Dressing Congress.
Mr. Smith was elected to Studentship of the Institution in 1928, he was transferred to Associate Membership in 1936, and to Membership in 1950. He was a member of the Institution of Mining Engineers, and also of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Vol. 68, Trans I.M.M., 1958-59, p.396
