Wilfrid Frank MacDonald died in London on March 8th, 1941, as the result of enemy action, at the age of 55.
He received his early technical training in the drawing office of Messrs. Lake & Currie, and the laboratory of the late Mr. G.T. Holloway, and this was supplemented, after three years of practical experience in the Caucasus and New South Wales, by a course at the Camborne School of Mines. He then went to Egypt, where he was employed in Government service in the Department of Mines, and the geological survey of Egyptian oilfields, and subsequently as assistant superintendent to the African Prospecting Syndicate.
In 1912 he returned to England to enter into partnership with Mr. John Wells, as consulting engineers. In the autumn of 1916 he became technical adviser to Messrs. James Spicer & Sons, in connexion with contracts entered into with the Ministry of Munitions.
In 1920 he returned to Egypt to take full charge of exploration work for the Oilfields of Egypt, Ltd., in the Gulf of Suez and Red Sea, and three years later he went to Burma on similar work for the Union Oil Co. of Burma, Ltd. From 1926 to 1931 he was resident managing director in Rumania for the Dacia Romano Petroleum Syndicate, Ltd. In 1932 he returned to London and established himself in practice as a consulting mining engineer, and while still retaining his connexion with the Rumanian Syndicate, he also acted for companies in Kenya, North Wales and elsewhere.
Mr. MacDonald was admitted to Studentship of the Institution in 1904, and was elected an Associate in 1913.
Vol. 51, Trans IMM 1941-2, pp.336-7
