William Crosley died of heart failure on July 31st, 1921, in London.
He was brought up on engineering traditions, his father having been associated with the construction of some of the first railways in this country, and he spent his earlier years in colliery work, the first responsible position he filled being as surveyor to the Pemberton Collieries, near Wigan.
In 1887, he transferred his activities to gold-mining, with which he was more particularly connected during the remainder of his career, and for ten years he had charge of the Sucre gold-mines in the Republic of Colombia. At the close of that engagement he went to South Africa as manager of the Rhodesian Gold Trust, and afterwards as consulting engineer to the Charterland Gold Fields and the Mashonaland Agency.
From 1901 to 1909 he was on the Gold Coast in charge of the Prestea Block ‘A,’ and for three subsequent years he was engaged in exploration in Mexico, where he covered an immense amount of country in reporting on mines and properties. While still in America he was recalled to Prestea, to occupy three strenuous years in reorganizing the mine and the native quarters. During the period of the war he was mostly in Burma engaged in developing Wolfram mines, and the last year of his life was spent in charge of a group of tin mines for Messrs. Tarbutt and Janson. In fact, he had only recently returned from Nigeria, and was completing his arrangements to go out again to the Gold Coast when the fatal seizure supervened which ended his varied career. At intervals between the foregoing engagements he had reported on various mines in France, Spain and Portugal.
Mr. Crosley was a man of wide attainments; an artist, as well as a mining engineer, he was a Member of the Pastel Society and frequently exhibited his work. He wrote a handbook on Surveying, which was only completed on the very evening prior to his death. He was a contributor to the Institution’s Proceedings, with papers on ‘The Computation of Assay Values’ and ‘A Graphic Calculator,’ which were published in the Transactions, vol. xv, 1905-6, in addition to taking part in the discussion of other papers.
Mr. Crosley was elected a Member of the Institution in 1901.
Vol. 31, Trans I.M.M. 1921-3, pp. 576-7
