Walter Dilke Hole died in Bristol on 22nd November, 1955, at the age of 83.
He was a student at the Camborne School of Metalliferous Mining from 1889 to 1891, then left England to gain experience on the Witwatersrand. He was consecutively rock drill miner at George Goch Gold Mining Co., shaft sinker at the Bonanza Gold Mining Co., underground shift boss at Langlaagte Syndicate, assistant underground manager at Roodepoort United Main Reef Gold Mining Co., and mine secretary to New Rietfontein Estate and Gold Mining Co. He returned to England to take a postgraduate course in assaying at the Penzance School of Mines, and in 1900 was appointed battery manager at Rota Anna Gold Mining Co., at Kapnikbanya in Austria-Hungary. From 1901 to 1903 he worked for Messrs. John Taylor and Sons as engineer in the Egyptian Sudan.
For seven years, during the period 1905-1912, Mr. Hole was underground manager to the Cape Copper Company’s mines in Namaqualand and was in Chile from 1913 to 1916 working as assistant manager of Poderosa Mining Co. He returned to England to serve in the Ministry of Munitions sampling high explosives and propellants, and was manager of mine drainage tunnel works in Shropshire in 1918.
After the war he went to Mexico on his appointment as general manager to Palmarejo and Mexican Gold Fields, Ltd., remaining there for thirteen years until 1931. In 1933 he examined Bembe Copper Mine in Portuguese Congo, West Africa, and in 1934 made professional visits to Mexico and Canada.
Thereafter Mr. Hole did mostly private consulting work for various companies in London and particularly for Derby and Co., Ltd., who retained his services to the last. He made trips abroad, and in spite of an accident which occurred during the last war he remained active until a very short time before his death.
Mr. Hole was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1935.
Vol. 65, Trans IMM 1955-56, p.515
