William George Vowles died at Que Que, Southern Rhodesia, on 22nd September, 1957; he was 67.
Mr. Vowles was born at Kelston, Somerset, and educated at Bath Forum School and Bath Technical School from 1898 to 1906. He was a pupil-apprentice for two years with Messrs. Stothert and Pitt, general engineers in Bath, at same time attending extension lectures of the Faculty of Engineering, Bristol University.
He left England in 1911 for the mechanical engineering department of Crown Mines, Ltd., Johannesburg, where he worked until the outbreak of war in 1914, studying meanwhile at Witwatersrand School of Mines and Technology. He served from 1914 to 1916 in German South West Africa attached to the Natal Carbineers.
On being invalided out of the Forces he took up the post of engineer at Old West mine, Penhalonga, Southern Rhodesia, for Anglo-French Development Co. He was later appointed mechanical engineer at Rezende and Kent mines, where he was concerned with the new eastern section of Rezende and the Streatham mine, and with sinking and equipping three main haulage shafts.
He was manager of the Kent mine (Kent Mines, Ltd.) from 1921 to 1923, then opened up and managed Mandora mine for the next three years on his own account, also operating Kent mine for a while. He worked on mine developing at Cam and Motor mine, Gatooma, for eighteen months, and in 1928 was appointed works manager for Rhodesian and General Asbestos Corporation, Ltd., at Shabani, where he helped to design and erect the new mills then being constructed. In January, 1932, he opened the Calcite gold mine in the Lonely District on his own account, and in November, 1933, became chairman and managing director of Q.Q. Mines, Ltd., operating the Gaika mine.
Mr. Vowles continued development and prospecting activities in the mine, Blue and Vee Mines, Ltd., Gothic mine, and others, and from 1937 was a member of the Government Roasting Plant Control Board, Que Que. He was a director of, and later consultant to, Motapa Mines, Ltd., and was consulting engineer for Connemara mine of Frobisher Exploration Co., Ltd.
Mr. Vowles always took a keen interest in the development of Southern Rhodesia, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Rhodesia Chamber of Mines, chairman of the Mineral Resources Committee of the Natural Resources Board, and chairman of the Manpower Commission during the last war. He was awarded the O.B.E. in the New Year’s Honours List of 1953.
He contributed a paper entitled ‘Treatment of the refractory gold ores of Southern Rhodesia’ to the Fourth Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress held in London in 1949.
Mr. Vowles was elected a Member of the Institution in 1944.
Vol 68, Trans IMM 1958-59, p.124
