Douglas Ralph Home died on October 28th, 1920, aged 39 years.
From October, 1899, to July, 1901, he took a special course at the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, and then went out to Colorado as assistant surveyor to the Woods Investment Co., at Cripple Creek. In November, 1901, he was appointed assistant surveyor on the engineering staff of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. at Bisbee, Arizona, and acted as personal assistant to Dr. L.D. Ricketts, the consulting engineer, in the examination of silver properties in Sonora, Mexico.
He returned to England to take a course in geology at the Royal School of Mines in February, 1903, and on completion of that went to Spain, where for some months he was engaged in experimenting with electrical appliances for mining purposes in Andalusia. In February, 1904, he conducted an expedition to Liberia, West Africa, for the purpose of examining and reporting on corundum deposits, and in September of that year he was appointed assistant surveyor in the Mineral Survey of Northern Nigeria.
In September, 1906, he went to Egypt, at first as Assistant, afterwards as Inspector of Mines to the Ministry of Finance. From August to December, 1910, he was engaged in reporting on petroleum concessions in Upper Burma on behalf of Messrs. Thompson & Hunter, and early in 1911 undertook the same class of work in Egypt for a London Syndicate. Later in the year he was in Louisiana and Texas, also reporting on oil properties, From August, 1912, to June, 1915, he was principal surveyor on the Gwalior State Mineral Survey, Central India.
In July, 1915, he joined H.M. Forces and obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers, serving first in the British Expeditionary Force and afterwards as Staff Officer in the Egyptian campaign. After demobilization, in September, 1919, he went to Peru to report on petroleum concessions.
Mr. Home was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1906, and was transferred to Membership in 1920.
Vol. 30, Trans IMM 1920-21, pp.473-4
