Thomas Williams, of Penzance, Cornwall, died on 12th January, 1959, the age of 66.
Mr. Williams gained his practical training in Cornwall from the age of 17, being employed at the Lelant tin mine from 1908 until the end of 1917, except for two months in 1911 when he assisted the late Mr. Angwin, M.I.M.M., in Canada, and for a period of war service from 1915 to 1919.
He received technical instruction through a correspondence course and at local day and evening classes held by the County Council and by the Camborne School of Mines, for which he was later engaged as an assistant teacher in assaying mineralogy and mathematics in their St. Just branch.
After the war Mr. Williams left for India in 1919 on joining Balaghat Gold Mines, Ltd., as reduction officer and cyanide chemist. Eight years later, in 1927, he took up employment with Mysore Gold Mining Co., Ltd., South India, with which company he remained until his retirement to Cornwall in 1952.
While in India Mr. Williams worked closely with the Kolar Gold Field Mining and Metallurgical Society, having been present at its inauguration by Mr. Henry Taylor in 1920. Some of his papers are published in the Society’s Bulletin. He was elected a member of the Society’s Council in 1938 and was honorary secretary and editor from 1940 to 1946, after which he sat on the council of the Metallurgical Section of the Society.
Mr. Williams was elected a Student of the Institution in 1914 and transferred to Associate Membership in 1923.
Vol. 69, Trans IMM 1959-60, p.84
