Lord [John] Cadman, G.C.M.G., F.R.S., died at Shenley Park, Bletchley, on May 31st, 1941, at the age of 63.
He was the son of the late Mr. J.C. Cadman, M.Inst.C.E., and was born at Silverdale, Staffordshire, on
September 7th, 1877. He was educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme and at Durham University, where he took the degree of D.Sc.
When only 23 years of age he became manager of the Silverdale Collieries, and two years later he was appointed H.M. Inspector of Mines for East Scotland, where he made his first contact with the oil industry through the shale enterprise. After serving in a similar capacity in Staffordshire, he was employed by the Government of Trinidad in 1904 to settle disputes in connexion with the working of asphalt, and while there he was instrumental in promoting the oil industry in that Colony.
Returning to England, he served on the Royal Commission of Mines in special research on ventilation, and subsequently resumed his duties as Inspector of Mines. In 1910 he was appointed Professor of Mining at Birmingham University, and in that capacity was responsible for the establishment of the University’s Department of Petroleum Technology. In 1913 he established contact with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (as it was then styled), when he was appointed a member of the Admiralty Commission which resulted in the British Government taking a financial interest in the company.
Following that he served during the Great War on the chemical section of trench warfare and subsequently held the position of Chairman of the Inter-Allied Petroleum Council, controlling all oil supplies for the Allies.
In 1921 he became technical adviser to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, shortly afterwards joining the board of directors. In due course he became deputy-chairman, and early in 1929 he was appointed chairman.
In addition to this connexion with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, he held many other appointments, amongst which were included chairmanship of the Iraq Petroleum Company and directorships in the Suez Canal Company and the Great Western Railway. He also sat on a number of Government committees, including the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, the Scientific and Industrial Research Council, the Government Industrial Transference Board, the Safety in Mines Research Board, the Fuel Research Board, the Coal Advisory Committee, and the Committee of Enquiry into the Post Office, besides which he was vice-chairman of the Bridgeman Television Committee.
He was made a C.M.G. in 1916, in 1918, and G.C.M.G. in 1929, and was raised to the peerage in 1937 with the title of Baron Cadman of Silverdale. He also held several foreign honours, ‘including’ the First Class Order of the Rafidain and Pasha, First Class, of Transjordan. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1940, and was an honorary LL.D. of Birmingham University and honorary D.Eng. of Melbourne University. He occupied the Presidential chair of the Institute of Fuel, the Institute of Petroleum Technologists, and the Society of British Gas Industries; He was a Past President of the Institution of Mining Engineers and was awarded the Gold Medal of that Institution in 1926.
In 1932 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy ‘in recognition of his work in the advancement of technical education and the development of the mineral industries, and of his distinguished public services’.
Lord Cadman was elected a Member of the Institution in 1909, was a Member of Council from 1913 to 1936 and was Vice-President from 1924 to 1928.
Vol. 81, Trans I.M.M. 1941-2, p. 331
