Albert Gindrew Syme, D.S.O., M.C., died in New York on 8th September 1948 at the age of 63.
He received his professional training at the Royal School of Mines from 1905 to 1908 and after gaining the A.R.S.M. in mining went on a year’s l.M.M. postgraduate course to Tomboy Gold Mines Co., Ltd., Telluride, Colorado, where he stayed until 1910. He then joined the staff of El Ore Mining and Railway Co., Ltd., Mexico, as mine sampler and later became surveyor and engineer, working for a few months in 1914 at La Blanca mine, Pachuca.
In January, 1915, he joined the Royal Engineers and served with the B.E.F. in France in command of 172 Tunnelling Company, with the rank of major, and was awarded the D.S.O. and M.C. He returned to El Ore in June, 1919, as mine foreman and was soon promoted mine superintendent. He left in July, 1920, to take up the position of general superintendent to the Casados mine at Jalisco, Mexico, and in January, 1921, was appointed general superintendent of La Noria mine, Zacetecas, where he developed the property for five years. He then worked for a year as general superintendent of the Santiago mine for the Corporacion Minera de Mexico, and up to the end of 1928 was engaged on examining and reporting on Mexican properties.
From January, 1929, to December, 1932. Major Syme was in business on his own account in Italy, Germany and Czechoslovakia, but early in 1933 went to Jamaica as mining engineer to Ancolex, Ltd., where he prospected and developed copper deposits. He worked in Greece on his own manganese property for about a year, then in 1935 was employed by Anglo-Egyptian Land Co., Ltd, on the Gold Coast. He took up the appointment of superintendent of Frontino Gold Mines, Ltd at La Salada, Colombia, in 1937, and had retired from the management only a few months before his death.
Major Syme was elected to Studentship of the Institution in 1907, and was transferred to Associateship in 1912 and to Membership in 1935.
Vol. 58, Trans I.M.M., 1948-49, pp.594-5
