Bramley Leopold Melvill died suddenly from heart disease in Cairo on May 20th, 1944, at the age of 44. He was a South African, and served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force for two years during the 1914-18 war.
After a period of four years as an articled pupil of Messrs. D.W.H. Tandy, Stott & Kirkby, of Pietermaritzburg, Natal, he was appointed, in November, 1924, assistant engineer in charge of layout and track and equipment for the British Insulated and Helsby Cable Co., on the electrification of the main line between Glencoe and Maritzburg.
From 1925 to 1928 he held the position of assistant surveyor to the Crown Mines, Ltd., Johannesburg, and in the latter year passed the examination for the Mine Surveyor’s Certificate of Competency of the Chamber of Mines, Transvaal. For nine months subsequently, Mr. Melvill acted as assistant surveyor to the Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., N. Rhodesia, and was in charge of the Potomato Gorge hydro-electric power scheme, later being transferred to the Rhodesian Selection Trust. From April, 1929, to January, 1930, he assisted Dr. Anton Gray of the Selection Trust in his survey of the Nkana Concession, and was then sent to the Mufulira copper mines as chief mine surveyor. After twelve months he was appointed assistant chief engineer and worked in Northern Rhodesia until the mines were temporarily closed in 1932.
He spent six months from January, 1933, in Yugoslavia with Dr. Gray, making gold mine examinations, and from November, 1933, to November, 1935, he was assistant manager of the Lagares tin mines in Portugal in the employment of New Consolidated Gold Fields, Ltd. His subsequent service with the Selection Trust, Ltd., took him to Egypt and to South America as assistant field engineer under the direction of Dr. Gray, and in 1938 and 1939 he was in Canada and California conducting examinations of various prospects.
Mr. Melvill was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1938.
Vol. 54, Trans IMM 1944-45, p.272
