Clifford Norman Smith died at Abu Hamed, Sudan, on 26th May, 1951, after being in the desert without water for several days owing to the breakdown of his car. He was 47 years of age.
He began his mining career as a student at the Rother Vale Colliery Co., Ltd., from November, 1921, to October, 1924, subsequently taking a mining course at the University of Sheffield and graduating with the B.E. (Min.) degree in March, 1928.
In April of that year Mr. Smith took up an appointment with Ex Lands Nigeria, Ltd., at Jos, being in charge of underground workings and the extraction of tin concentrates from fluvio volcanic hill deposits. From 1936 to 1942 he held the position of exploitation engineer with Kerer (Trinidad) Oilfields, leaving to take the position of assistant senior engineer on airfield construction in Trinidad by the Walsh-Driscoll Construction Corpn. of New York. In 1944 he was appointed geologist in charge of quarries for the Trinidad Government.
He left for England in 1946 to work on well-boring and soil mechanics as contracts manager to Messrs. Le Grand, Sutcliff and Gell, Ltd., and in 1947 went to the Gold Coast for South Banker Areas, Ltd. He returned to England the following year to join the Directorate of Opencast Coal Production, and in 1951 took up an appointment in the Sudan as manager of Central Desert Mining Co., a post which he held at the time of his death.
Mr. Smith was elected to Studentship of the Institution in 1929 and was transferred to Associate Membership in 1930.
Vol. 61, Trans I.M.M., 1951-52, p.260
