John Tila Swindley died in Sumatra as the result of an accident in October, 1918, at the age of 44 years.
A New Zealander by birth, he was, in 1883, apprenticed for a term of five years to Mr. Alexander Tait, engineer and blacksmith, at Auckland, N.Z. He attended classes at the Coromandel School of Mines, and subsequently worked With the Kapauga Gold Mining Co., and the Kapai Vermont Kuaotuna, in various capacities.
Between 1893 and 1895 he joined the Torpedo Corps in Wellington for practical engineering and underwent a course of training in the New Zealand permanent Militia. In 1895 and 1896 he was mine manager of the Maori Dream and Kuaotuna Mines, followed by about a twelvemonth as mine manager and prospecting supervisor for the Kauri Freehold Gold Estate Co. in the Coromandel Peninsula. From 1897 to 1898 he was manager of the Triumph Gold Mine, Coromandel, and subsequently battery manager of the Great Mercury.
The years 1899 to 1904 were occupied by a course at the Thames School of Mines, mining and shaft sinking at the Hauraki and the Saxon Mines and by contracting and working a small mine on his own account. In February, 1904, Mr. Swindley left New Zealand to take up an appointment at the Redjang Lebong Gold Mine in Sumatra as shift boss (during part of the period having charge of the mine), afterwards in charge of the pump and shaft sinking, and finally in full charge. In 1911, he resigned his position to open up a new proposition at Kinandam, and at the date of his death he was acting general manager of the Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Maatschappij of Amsterdam.
Mr. Swindley was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1914.
Vol. 29, Trans I.M.M., 1919-20, p.438
