James Gunson Lawn died on 21st October, 1952, at Eshowe, South Africa. He was 84 years of age.
Before entering the Royal School of Mines in 1888 he had spent six years surveying and mining in Furness under his father, who was mine manager of the Barrow Haematite Steel Co., Ltd. He graduated in 1891 with the A.R.S.M. in mining, being awarded the Murchison prize in 1890 and the De la Beche Medal in the following year. He rejoined the Barrow Haematite Steel Co., Ltd., as chief surveyor until 1892, when he became lecturer on mining to the Cumberland County Council. In the following year he returned to the Royal School of Mines as Instructor in Mine Surveying and assistant to Sir Clement Le Neve Foster.
He went to South Africa in 1896 to organize the South African School of Mines at Kimberley (later to evolve into the University of the Witwatersrand), and remained in the position of Principal and Professor of Mining for seven years, serving with the Kimberley Town Guard during the South African War. In 1903 he was appointed assistant consulting engineer to the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co., Ltd., and associated mining companies, but returned to England in 1907 to become Head of the Mining Department of the Camborne School of Metalliferous Mining for two years. In 1909 he went back to the South African School of Mines and Technology, which had been transferred from Kimberley to Johannesburg, as Principal and Professor of Mining, but resigned in 1910 to become consulting engineer to the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co.
In 1915 he returned to England to work in the explosives department of the Ministry of Munitions, of which he was appointed Controller. For this work he was awarded the C.B.E. in 1920. At the end of the war Dr. Lawn again went to South Africa as joint managing director and consulting engineer to Johannesburg Consolidated, returning to London in 1924 in the position of director and consulting engineer of the same group and of many other mining companies.
Dr. Lawn became a Member of the Institution in 1913. In 1935 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution ‘in recognition of his distinguished services to the mining profession and the industry’. He had been Member of Council for South Africa for a year before serving as Ordinary Member of Council consecutively from 1925 to 1928, as Vice-President during the session 1928-29 and as President in 1930-31, and remaining on the Council in the capacity of Past-President until 1938. He held the office of Honorary Treasurer for eight years from 1938 to 1946, and in the latter year was elected to Honorary Membership of the Institution.
Dr. Lawn received the Honorary Doctorate of Science of the University of the Witwatersrand in 1933 for his services in the cause of technical education. He was the author of Mining accounts and book keeping, published in 1897. His Presidential Address entitled ‘Periodical variations in the prices of minerals and metals’ is published in the Transactions, vol. 39, 1929-30.
Mr. K. Richardson writes: ‘Dr. Lawn, or the Professor, as he remained to many of his oldest friends, especially to those of us who had had the privilege of studying under him, maintained his interest in the well-being of his associates and colleagues throughout his long and well-spent life, a kindly interest designed to help and encourage and to stimulate endeavour.
He possessed a faultless memory, had clarity of thought and expression, and was a keen observer. He was also a man of wide learning who took a lively interest in a large number of matters outside the immediate precincts of his profession. He acquainted himself of all facts of importance wherever he was, and he had the ability to impart his knowledge to others in a most entertaining manner. One of his hobbies was botany and to accompany him on a country walk was a delight and a liberal education in itself.
His quiet charm will long be remembered by a host of friends and colleagues’.
Vol. 62, Trans IMM 1952-53, pp.199-200
