Edward Coppée Thurston died at Ross Valley, Cal., U.S.A., on April 29th, 1926.
He graduated from the Lehigh University in 1896 with the degree of Bachelor of Science and on completion of his course he entered the Freiberg Bergakademie, Saxony, where he remained until May, 1898. He then went to South Africa, and worked on the Robinson Deep and Simmer Jack mines in the Transvaal, and as assistant mining engineer to the British South Africa Co., Ltd., at Bulawayo, Rhodesia. He spent a long holiday in visiting mines in the United States and Japan, and afterwards examined properties in Mexico. In 1902 he opened an office in San Francisco as a consulting engineer, and in the course of his work visited China, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.
Subsequently, in 1900, he opened an office in New York, but in the following year he accepted the position of consulting engineer to Messrs. A. Goerz & Co., Ltd., with headquarters in London. Shortly after the outbreak of the War he gave up professional duties to take part in the relief work in Belgium. Joining the firm of Yeatman & Berry, of New York, he went to Washington in 1917 with Pope Yeatman, who was head of the non-ferrous division of the War Industries Board, and with whom he had been in constant association since 1898. On account of increasing ill-health he resigned his professional work in May, 1920, and retired to California.
Mr. Thurston was elected a Member of the Institution in 1912.
Vol. 36, Trans IMM 1926-27, p.535
