Francis Matthew Ball died in Purley, Surrey, on 13th July, 1956, at the age of 79.
Mr. Ball began work in 1896 in the City Bank, Ltd., London, and went to Southern Rhodesia in 1900 where he was employed by the Standard Bank of South Africa, Ltd., in Bulawayo. In 1905-06 he was engaged on railway construction work and from 1906-07 was secretary, storekeeper and compound manager of the Beatrice mine in Salisbury, becoming mine manager in 1907. He did prospecting and development work and cyaniding in Rhodesia before returning to England in 1910 to study for three years at the Camborne School of Metalliferous Mining.
On leaving Camborne in 1913 Mr. Ball was appointed manager of El Sukari gold mine in Egypt but in 1914 enlisted in the Cavalry as a private, 2nd King Edward’s Horse, attached to the 10th Hussars and in the Cavalry Machine Gun Corps. He served in France and was demobilized with the rank of major in 1919.
From 1919 to 1928 Mr. Ball was in Burma in the position of general manager, Mawchi Mines, Ltd., and in 1929 examined and reported on alluvial and lode tin in Malaya. He went to Venezuela in 1930 as mine superintendent to Mocupia gold nine and was promoted general manager in 1934. From 1938 to 1939 Mr. Ball served as chief engineer in Berlin for the International Board for Non-Intervention in Spain. Since that time he had lived in England.
Mr. Ball joined the Institution in 1913 as a Student and transferred to Associate Membership in 1920.
Vol. 66, Trans I.M.M. 1956-57, pp. 358-9
