Ernest Williams died at Perth, Western Australia, on July 29th, 1936, at the age of 75.
After a few months’ work as assistant surveyor in connexion with colliery railways in England and Wales, and later with the Hexham waterworks, he entered the service of the late Mr. Thos. J. Bewick, M.Inst.C.E., in 1877. In the following eleven years he was trained in civil and mining engineering and in smelting, at the Langley Baring [sic = Barony] mines in Northumberland and elsewhere.
From 1888 to 1889 he was chief assistant to Messrs. Bewick & Moreing, in London, and in the latter year was appointed assistant to Messrs. Bewick, Moreing & Alford, Johannesburg. In 1891 he started practice in Johannesburg as consulting mining engineer and general manager of gold and coal mines, but left South Africa in 1897 to represent Messrs. Bewick, Moreing & Co. in Western Australia. In 1900 he was transferred to Johannesburg in the same capacity, and in 1903 he recommenced his consulting practice. During the following six years he reported on mines in the Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Natal, and in 1909 he became resident partner in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, of Messrs. Hooper, Speak & Williams.
In the following year he left Australia to act as resident engineer at Porcupine, Canada, for Messrs. Bewick, Moreing & Co. From 1913 to 1923 he again practised as consulting engineer, this time with headquarters in London, and during this period he visited Russia, Spain, Dutch Guiana, Chile, Canada, Brazil, West Africa, Rhodesia, East Africa, Australia and British Columbia. He returned to Western Australia in 1928, and was appointed general manager of the Boulder Perseverance Gold Mine, and later general manager of the Great Boulder Proprietary Gold Mines, Ltd. This post he relinquished on account of his age in 1936, and a month before his death he again took up private practice in Perth. Mr. Williams was elected an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1889, and was a Member of the South African Institute of Engineers.
He was elected a Member of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in 1892.
Vol. 46, Trans IMM 1936-37, p.835
