Captain Ronald John Coulson Telford, Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, died on August 27th, 1945, after an illness while on active service at Balik Papan, Borneo, at the age of 30.
Born in Australia, he studied at the University of Western Australia from 1933 to 1936 and from June to August, 1939, graduating in March, 1940, with the degree of B.Eng., with honours in engineering geology. From March, 1937, until his return to the University in 1939, he worked as a geologist on the Aerial Geological and Geophysical Survey of Northern Australia, and for eight months from September, 1939, was employed by Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co., Ltd., on an investigation of properties at Queenstown, Tasmania. In May, 1940, he was appointed draughtsman and assistant surveyor in the engineering department of Big Bell Mines, Ltd., at Big Bell, Western Australia, and a month later became mine surveyor.
He joined the Australian Imperial Force in February, 1942, attaining the rank of captain in the Australian Armoured Corps, and in 1944 was transferred to the A.E.M.E. in charge of the workshop attached to an engineer company.
He was elected to Studentship of the Institution in 1939 and transferred to Associateship in 1941.
Vol. 55, Trans IMM 1945-6, p.578
