William Alexander Kynoch Christie died in London after a short illness, on June 16th, 1944, at the age of 61. He was born in Edinburgh, and was educated at Daniel Stewart’s College and Heriot’s, Edinburgh, and preceded to Edinburgh University as a Mackay-Smith scholar, where he obtained his B.Sc. degree in 1902. In 1904 he was a Carnegie Research scholar, and studied at Zurich University, where he obtained the Ph.D. degree magna cum laude in 1905. In the same year he worked for a short time as research assistant to Professor A. Crum Brown at Edinburgh, and then joined the Mond Nickel Co. as a chemist at Clydach. In November, 1906, he was appointed to the newly-created post of chemist to the Geological Survey of India, a position he held for nearly 26 years until his retirement in October, 1932.
During the Great War he served in the Indian Army, from which he was drafted to the Special Brigade of the Royal Engineers in France in 1916. He was recalled to India in 1917 to assist in the production of war minerals, and in 1918 his services were lent to the Finance Department of the Government of India, as Deputy Assay Master in H.M. Mint, Calcutta. He returned to the Geological Survey at the end of 1920.
After a few years in retirement in England, Dr. Christie went back to India in 1936, this time as civilian technical officer to the Principal Supply Officer’s Committee (India) under the Defence Department, India. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he was in England on deputation, and he was retained at the India Office, where he remained until his death.
Dr. Christie was elected a Member of the Institution in 1921, and he was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and a Fellow and one-time President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. His published work included articles in the Zeitechrift fűr angewandte Chemie and the Records of the Geological Survey of India.
Vol. 54, Trans I.M.M. 1944-5, p. 262
