John Swan Watkins died in a London nursing home on February 18th, 1936, at the age of 63.
From 1887 to 1892 he served his apprenticeship as chemist at the North Eastern Railway Laboratory, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in 1893 was appointed assayer and cyanide works manager at the Transvaal Gold Estates. He later became cyanide manager at the Africander gold mine, and at Pigg’s Peak gold mines, also in the Transvaal.
In 1898 he went to Western Australia as metallurgist at the Westralia Mt. Morgans mine, a post which he held for five years. His long association with the Gold Coast began in 1903, when he was appointed metallurgist at the Wassau Mines, and in 1905 he joined the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, Ltd., in a similar capacity. After some years he was appointed manager of the company and from 1926 to the time of his death was consulting engineer and technical adviser to the company in London.
Mr. Watkins was elected a Member of the Institution in 1909.
Vol. 46, Trans IMM 1936-7, pp.834-5
