William Frederick Collins died in Southern Rhodesia on 22nd February, 1956, at the age of 73.
He received his training at the Royal School of Mines from 1902 to 1905, and gained the Associateship of the School in metallurgy and mining. Mr. Collins was appointed assayer to British Mining and Metal Co., Ltd., in 1905, at their tin, Wolfram and arsenic works in Cornwall, shortly afterwards being made manager of Coombe works, Harrowbarrow. He left for China in the following year to join Syndicat du Yunnan, Ltd., as mining engineer and metallurgist, and in 1907 was placed in charge of the mining and tin-buying of the newly floated Société d’Exploitation de Liu-Ngan, subsequently holding the position of general manager from 1909 to 1912.
Mr. Collins was appointed general manager in China for Anglo-French China Corporation, Ltd., in 1912, and was also representative of the Yunnan Syndicate and the Chinese Salt Co., Ltd., acting from Peking.
In 1917 Mr. Collins reported to the Ministry of Munitions on the antimony position in China. He served until 1919 as captain with the Chinese Labour Corps, captain O.C. 115th C.L.C., France, and on the staff of G.H.Q. on salvage control.
He returned to Anglo-French China Corporation after the war and was appointed director and manager in China. He held this position until his retirement from China in 1930; he also held office with the Peking British Chamber of Commerce for a period. Mr. Collins had been engaged on tobacco growing and gold mining in Southern Rhodesia since 1930.
He was the author of Mining enterprise in China (Heinemann, 1918) and, among other technical works, contributed two papers to the Transactions of the Institution: ‘Tin production in the Province of Yunnan, China’ (vol. 19, 1909-10) and ‘Chinese mining legislation’ (vol. 25, 1915-16).
Mr. Collins was elected to Studentship of the Institution in 1905 and transferred to Associate Membership in 1908 and to full Membership in 1914.
Vol. 66, Trans I.M.M. 1956-57, pp. 111-12
