Samuel John Truscott died at his home in Finchley, London, on 26th September, 1950, after a short illness. He was 80 years of age.
He was born in Cornwall and was trained at the from 1886 to 1889 where he obtained the Associateship in Mining and gained the Murchison Prize and the De La Beche Medal. He was then employed for three years with Becher Jarvis and Co. in the Malay Peninsula, leaving in 1892 to take up the position of assistant manager of Lisbon-Berlyn Mining Co. at Lydenburg, Transvaal. He remained on the Witwatersrand goldfields until 1897, first as manager of Nigel Deep and later as assistant to the late John Hays Hammond, consulting engineer to The Consolidated Goldfields of South Africa.
After visiting the Urals and Borneo, he worked as manager of Nederland Indies Gold Mining Co. in the Celebes from 1900 to 1901. He was engaged on exploration in West Africa in 1902 and gold mining in Sumatra from 1902 to 1908, returning to London in 1909, where for some years he practised as consulting engineer. In 1913 he was appointed assistant professor of mining at the Royal School of Mines and in 1919 succeeded to the Chair of Mining. On his retirement the title of Emeritus Professor was conferred on him.
Professor Truscott, who was elected a Member of the Institution in 1901, gave almost continuous service on the Council since 1909, first as an elected member and then as Vice-President for the period 1925-28, and as President for the session 1928-29. He continued to serve as Past-President for eleven years, and after a gap of four years had the distinction of rejoining the Council as an elected member, being re-elected the following year and subsequently remaining on the Council as Past-President until his death.
The Gold Medal of the Institution for 1937 was awarded to Professor Truscott ‘in recognition of his services in the advancement of the science and practice of mining and metallurgy, with special reference to his services in technological education’, and in 1948 the status of Honorary Membership of the Institution was conferred on him. He received the honorary degree of D.Sc. (Engineering) of the University of the Witwatersrand in 1930, and in 1950 he was elected Senior Fellow of the Geological Society of London, of which he had been a Fellow for 60 years.
Professor Truscott was the author of ‘The Witwatersrand Goldfields, Banker mining and practice; a translation of Ore deposits’, by Beyschlag, Vogt and Krusch; ‘Text Book on Ore Dressing; and Mine Economics’; and several papers and numerous contributions to discussions published in the Transactions of the Institution.
Dr. S.W. Smith writes: A bare outline of Truscott’s career and of his contributions to the progress of metalliferous mining would be inadequate without an attempt to portray something of the character of one who, to those who had had close relations with him, was a man of profound knowledge and understanding of all aspects of mining practice. Somewhat aloof in manner, he was not, perhaps, one to form very intimate friendships among his professional associates. On occasion, however, he would surprise those who knew him least with a display of engaging humour, often when least expected. This was particularly in evidence at festive gatherings of senior students of the School of Mines.
The writer was, perhaps, one of the few of his professional friends to whom he had revealed the human side of character and to whom he had confided some of the cherished memories of his life and experiences. This partial intimacy arose from the fact that, as he said in a recent letter, ‘you are already acquainted with a good deal of my career, early and late, and would be fully posted, should it be worth the trouble, to write any obituary of me when the time came’. He said this with the knowledge that, as a small boy, the writer had been confronted daily by Truscott’s name in gold under the heading Honoris Causa.
It is, therefore, as a partial fulfilment of a trust that the writer ventures to pay this tribute to one who, with full justification, once said that he was ‘in many places and ways a pioneer’. From his schooldays Truscott had been a pioneer, blazing a trail towards the profession of mining, with little help or guidance beyond his own natural ability, a worthy ambition and the meticulous precision that was given to everything to which he applied his mind and attention.
The passing of Truscott removes from our Council and from our Roll one of the few remaining of those who witnessed the opening up of new mining enterprises, throughout and beyond the Empire, during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
After an absence of 24 years from the Royal School of Mines he returned, with this ripe experience, as a member of the mining staff in 1913, and he continued there during the next 22 years to train generations of mining students. When the time came for his retirement in 1935, due recognition was given to his long services. To the title of Professor was added that of Emeritus and he also became an Honorary Fellow of the Imperial College.
Truscott was proud of his Cornish ancestry, Cornwall, he said, ‘being the county of my derivation’. Although his early youth was spent at Southampton, family ties still bound him to Cornwall where he enjoyed many holidays. It may be to these associations that we can attribute the desire to seek adventure, as so many others of Cornish origin have done, in distant parts, which, in his day, were only accessible with difficulty and of which little was known.
To his Cornish ancestry we may, perhaps, also attribute the deep religious convictions which, undoubtedly, formed for him a sustaining background to his life. In his last letter to the writer of these notes he said: ‘Fate cannot touch me. I have tried and think my try is good’.
Vol. 60, Trans IMM 1950-51, pp.99-100
