Frank Brown Kenny died in hospital on February 22nd, 1947, at the age of 64.
After being trained in assaying by the late Trenham H. Reeks in London, and taking the survey course at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, in November 1905, he joined the staff of Abrokerri (Ashanti) Gold Mines, Ltd., in the Gold Coast. Two years later he went to eastern Siberia for Kluchi Gold Mines, Ltd., where he worked for three years.
In 1908 he went to Western Australia, and until 1913 was employed at the Great Boulder Perseverance Gold Mines, Whim Well Copper Mines, and the Marvel Loch Mining Co. Returning to England, he secured an appointment with the Niger Company, and after nine months’ prospecting work in Northern Nigeria he was appointed manager of Vom Areas.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 he resigned his post and was commissioned to the Royal Engineers. He served in France and was awarded the Military Cross, and on demobilization in 1919 was O.C. 56 Field Company R.E.
He returned to Nigerian in May, 1919, in the employment of the Bisichi Tin Co., and in April, 1920, look over the management of Ninghi Tin Co. Two years later Major Kenny went to Alaska for a London syndicate in charge of drilling operations on a gold property on the Seward Peninsula, and in 1923 was appointed manager for Edwards Mining Syndicate at Porcupine, N. Ontario. During the two yours he held this position he was also engaged in examining claims in the district for local interests.
He left Canada in February, 1925, and went to Tanganyika in the same year to work on tin deposits at Bukoba on behalf of British Guiana Finance, Ltd., and East African Trust, Ltd. In 1926 he assumed the managership of concessions in Ankoli, Uganda, for Tanganyika Goldfields, Ltd. He subsequently went to the Mergui District of Lower Burma for Anglo-Oriental Trust, and from 1932 to 1936 reported on deposits in Dutch Guiana, New Zealand, Western Australia, Ireland and Rhodesia. In December, 1937, he was engaged on work in the Belgium Congo, but returned to this country in 1940 to rejoin the Royal Engineer’s.
He commanded a Company of Royal Engineers in the Eighth Army, and at the end of the North Africa campaign was bitterly disappointed that he was not allowed to lead his Company in the invasion of Sicily, as he had reached the age for retirement. In 1944 he joined the prospecting section of the Directorate of Opencast Coal Production, and at the time of his death was Regional Prospecting Officer of the North Midland Region.
Major Kenny was elected to Associateship of the Institution in 1913 and was transferred to Membership in 1927.
Vol. 57, Trans IMM 1947-48, pp.474-5
