Leonard Cecil Stuckey died at Sidcup, Kent, on November 20th, 1944, at the age of 68, after an operation from which he never fully recovered.
He was born in Australia, and his first mining appointment was as junior assayer for six months at the smelting works of Broken Hill Junction Silver Co., Ltd.; at Port Adelaide. He then came to England and studied at the Royal School of Mines, London, from 1895 to 1898, obtaining a first-class Associateship in mining and metallurgy.
In 1899 he was appointed assistant engineer to the Caylloma Silver Mining Co. of Peru, and from 1903 to 1904 he was employed as an assistant engineer to Abosso Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Gold Coast, subsequently going to Asturias, N. Spain, to inspect a mine at Gijon for a London syndicate. He held the position of assistant general manager and mining manager to the Copiapó Mining Co., of Chile, from 1905 to 1911, when he became manager of Taquah and Abosso Mines, Ltd., Gold Coast.
From 1914 to 1919 he was general manager of Mill Close mine and Lea lead works, Derbyshire. He then spent two years in Mexico as assistant and general manager of Mazapil Copper Co., Ltd., and in 1922 he took up the appointment of general manager of the Luchana Mining Co., Ltd., at Bilbao, where he remained until 1927. He was then for three years general manager of European and North African Mines, Ltd., Melilla, Spanish Morocco, and in 1933 returned to Australia, where for six years, until 1939, he was general manager of mines and the representative of Messrs. Pellew-Harvey & Co., London.
After the outbreak of war he became a special lecturer at the Royal School of Mines, and took a keen personal interest in the students, who benefited greatly from his sagacity and wide experience. Two papers by Mr. Stuckey are included in the Transactions of the Institution, ‘Notes on the valuation of ores, concentrates, and smelter products’ (Vol. 31) and ‘Notes on the use of borehole pumps for mine drainage’ (Vol. 41).
He was elected a Student of the Institution in 1897, was transferred to Associateship in 1901 and to Membership in 1910. He served as a Member of Council from 1940 to 1943, and was a Vice-President at the time of his death.
Vol. 54, Trans I.M.M., 1944-45, p.276
