George Moore Osborne Barclay died of heart failure on November 28th, 1942, at the age of 63, about two weeks after his return to England from the Gold Coast.
He received his technical education, from 1901 to 1905, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated with the degrees of B.Sc. and C.E., and then, from 1905 to 1907, at Glasgow University, during this latter period obtaining about 12 months’ practical experience at the Fife Coal Company’s mines.
In 1907 he went to the Golden Kopje Mine, Southern Rhodesia, for about seven months, and thence went to South Africa, where he was employed on various Rand mines, amongst them being Knight’s Deep, Simmer and Jack, and Simmer Deep, working up to the position of underground manager. During this period he visited Mashonaland, Chile and Peru, but he was still underground manager at Knight’s Deep in 1914, when he joined H.M. Forces. He received a commission in the Royal Engineers (Tunnelling Companies) in 1917, and attained the rank of Captain. In 1919 he returned to South Africa as manager of Knight’s Deep until it closed down in the following year.
After several years of travel and mine examination in North and South America, he went to the manganese mines in the Caucasus on behalf of London interests, and was also engaged in exploration for mineral deposits in Tanganyika and Nyasaland. In 1932 he went to the Gold Coast, first as general manager of Taquah and Abosso and subsequently of the Ashanti Goldfields. In 1937 he was appointed consulting engineer to the West African Gold Corporation, a position he held up to the time of his death.
Mr. Barclay was elected a Member of the Institution in 1918, and a Member of Council in 1939.
Vol. 52, Trans I.M.M. 1942-43, p. 392
