James Herbert Curle died at Victoria, British Columbia, on December 26th, 1942, at the age of 76.
On leaving Cambridge University in 1890, he went to South Africa, where he obtained a varied experience during the next nine years at the Nigel, City & Suburban, Ferreira, and other gold mines in the Transvaal and in Zululand, with an interlude spent in inspecting properties in India, Australia, New Zealand, and British Columbia on behalf of Sir Edgar Vincent. On his return to South Africa in 1899 he acted as consulting engineer to Sir Edgar Vincent and Cecil Rhodes, of whom he was an ardent admirer and close friend. He was appointed a director of Nourse Deep, Angels Deep, Knight Central and other mines, and inspected mines in Rhodesia.
On the outbreak of the Boer War he left South Africa, and during the next few years inspected a large number of mines in various parts of the world, including gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, coal, and diamond properties. In all he claimed a personal knowledge of about 450 mines, and as a result of this experience he wrote his well-known treatise on ‘Gold Mines of the World’, which ran into more than one edition in a revised and up-to-date form.
From 1902 he was occupied in inspecting mines in Australia, the Malay Peninsula, Klondyke, Canada, Alaska, the United States and Mexico, and subsequently specialized in the sampling and valuation of orebodies, notably in Zululand, the Rand, Malaya, Peru, Rhodesia and Bohemia. Subsequently he acquired a considerable reputation as a traveller and author, of which he was justly proud even more than of his record as a mining engineer. He claimed to have covered about two million miles in the course of his eventful life, and in that impressive total visited far more countries than those already mentioned. As an author he produced seven books, all written in his distinctive style and showing first-hand knowledge derived from his world-wide experiences.
His sympathy with and understanding of the various races described in his books was an outstanding feature of his work. For the most part, Africa and the African natives claimed his special attention, but his latest book published early in 1942 under the somewhat cryptic title of ‘Eskimo Pie’ dealt with present-world conditions and showed remarkable foresight, since some portion of it must obviously have been written before the breath-taking changes now occurring in the Middle-East position. Strange to say, despite his outstanding literary abilities and his wide experience, Mr. Curle never contributed to the Transactions of the Institution, of which he was elected a Member in 1903.
Vol. 53, Trans I.M.M. 1943-4, pp. 427-8
