Ivan James Sharp is now presumed to have lost his life when the air liner from Lisbon was shot down by the enemy on June 1st, 1943.
Mr. Sharp, who was 45 years of age, entered the Camborne School of Mines in 1919 and obtained the First-Class Diploma engaged by the Rhodesian-Congo Border Concessions, Ltd., and worked in Northern Rhodesia as prospecting engineer, and area engineer, until 1927. In that year he returned to England, and after working at the Tresavean mine in Cornwall was in 1928 appointed assistant office engineer in the London organization of Selection Trust, Ltd., where he remained until the outbreak of war. He was particularly concerned with the Yugoslav business of Selection Trust, and was associated with Trepca Mines, Ltd., from the inception of that company.
Mr. Sharp served in. the Royal Engineers (Signals) from 1915 to 1917, and in the R.F.C. and R.A.F. from 1917 to 1919. Prior to the present war he held a commission in the Auxiliary Air Force, and in September, 1939, was posted to a Balloon Barrage Squadron in the London area, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He served with his unit until 1940, when he was specially released to join the staff of the newly-formed United Kingdom Commercial Corporation. At the date of his death he was a senior official in the corporation, and had for some time been in charge of the minerals department. He was engaged in responsible and important work in which he found scope for his abilities, and his leisure was devoted to R.A.F. welfare work in London.
Mr. Sharp was elected a Student of the Institution in 1922, and was transferred to Associateship in 1927.
Vol. 53, Trans I.M.M., 1943-44, p.439
