We are pleased to announce a new resource in the form of over 1700 obituaries of members of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy covering the period 1892-1968. They were collected by the late David Dixon as part of the research towards his doctorate on technical education in metalliferous mining.

Compared to some European countries, Britain was late in establishing mining schools, preferring instead to rely on ‘experience gained on the job’. The rise of American mining schools, with their more academic approach to all aspects of mine management, forced a shift from this empirical approach and led to the formation of, among others, the Royal School of Mines in 1851 and Camborne School of Mines in 1888.

In 1892 leading hard-rock mining professionals formed The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (IMM) for graduates of British mining schools who were working throughout the empire and the rest of the world.

The obituaries, published in the IMM Transactions, provide a clear demonstration of the worldwide contribution by British mining graduates from the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century.

Obituaries of members of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 1892-1968

Index of Graduates of the Camborne School of Mines 1898-1940

 

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