Laurence George David Hutchison died on 28th August, 1954, at the age of 70.
He was born in New Zealand and educated at Wellington College, Wellington, subsequently becoming a pupil of Mr. G.A. Denny, of General Mining and Finance (Albu group), Johannesburg. He came to England in 1900 to study engineering at University College, Sheffield, and did vacation work with Messrs. Fraser & Chalmers, Ltd., at Erith, Kent. He was a student at the Royal School of from 1903 to 1906 and gained the A.R.S.M. in Mining. He was awarded the Warrington Smyth Medal in 1912.
Mr. Hutchison returned to New Zealand in 1906 and was employed during 1907 by Waihi Gold Mining Co., Ltd., and Waihi Grand Junction Gold Mining Co. He then took up a position in London in charge of the concentrator testing works of the Wifley Mining Machinery Co. He went to Swaziland in 1909 where he was
head of the survey and assay departments, Pigg’s Peak Development Co., Ltd., for three years, leaving in 1912 to join Naraguta (Nigeria) Tin Mines, Ltd., as manager of Sho Areas.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined 1/8 (Irish) The King’s Liverpool Regiment, and by June, 1915, was captain in command of double company. He was seconded to 174 Tunnelling Coy., R.E., as section commander, and commanded the company from 1915 to 1917 with the acting rank of major. He retired in 1919 as lieutenant-colonel, the 9th N. Stafford (Pioneers). He was awarded the M.C. in October, 1915, and was four times mentioned in dispatches.
On his return to civilian life Mr. Hutchison became consulting engineer/technical adviser to the companies of the Latilla group, including Transvaal and Rhodesian Estates, Ltd., 1919-1923, and Rhodesia Exploration Co., Ltd., and its successor Rhodesian Corporation, Ltd., 1924-1934. He was resident in England from 1934 to 1939 but visited South and West Africa for the group, and from 1939 to 1940 was on the Gold Coast as general manager of Amalgamated Banket Areas, Ltd.
Mr. Hutchison served again with H.M. Forces in the second world war from 1940 to 1942 with the Royal Ordnance Factory at Swinnerton, Staffs., and during 1943 was manager for artillery ammunition at the South African Mint. Later that year he was appointed manager of Abenab vanadium mine for the South-West Africa Co., Ltd., leaving in 1945 to take the post of general manager of West African bauxite properties of the British Aluminium Co. M.A.P. agency. From 1946 to 1948 he was general manager of London and African Mining Trust, Ltd., and was reporting in West Africa in preparation for geophysical prospecting, and in 1949 became general manager of Nanwa Gold Mines, Ltd. He retired in 1951.
Mr. Hutchison was elected a Student of the Institution in 1906, and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1912 and to Membership in 1919. He was author of the paper entitled ‘Clean reef-mining and its influence on mining costs’ published in vol. 31 of the Transactions of the Institution (1921-22).
Vol. 64, Trans IMM 1954-55, pp.419-420
