George Stanley Hepburn died of pneumonia at Jos, Northern Nigeria, on January 2nd, 1937, at the age of 55.
An Australian by birth, he received his technical education at the Ballarat School of Mines, where he studied from 1901 to 1903. After six months’ work as assistant chemist to the Government Analyst, Ballarat, he was employed underground for a year by the Cassilis Gold Mining Co., Ltd., in East Gippsland, Victoria. In 1906 he went to Kalgoorlie, West Australia, where he worked first in the mills of the Ivanhoe, Hainault and Great Tower Hill mines. From 1907 to 1909 he was metallurgist and assistant manager to the
Havilah Gold Mining Co., Ltd., W. Australia, and in 1910 he left Australia for West Africa.
After a year at the Abosso mine, he was engaged in testing and working tin deposits for Jos Tin Area (Nigeria), Ltd., from 1911 to 1912. In the latter year he visited British Columbia, and in 1913 returned to West Africa for the Kameruns Gold Syndicate, Ltd.
During the Great War he served with the Royal Field Artillery, attaining the rank of Major, and was awarded the Military Cross.
In 1920 he joined the staff of the Colombian Mining and Exploration Co., Ltd., in South America, but returned in 1922 and since that date worked in West Africa, with the exception of three years during which he was in Tunis with the Zinc Manufacturing Co.
Mr. Hepburn was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1914.
Vol. 47, Trans IMM 1937-8, pp.542-3
