William Weir Webster died suddenly, from heart failure, at Herberton, North Queensland, on December 30th, 1934, at the age of 52.
He received technical training for a period of five years from 1895 to 1900 at Bellehauston Academy, Glasgow, and the Glasgow and West of Scotland College and from 1899 to 1904 served an apprenticeship in the office and laboratory of Messrs. William Robertson & Sons, civil and mining engineers, of that city.
On the conclusion of his articles he went to Queensland, where his first employment was in connexion with an extensive irrigation scheme at Bundaberg. He was next engaged in designing furnaces and surface equipment for the Glassford Creek Copper Milling Co. He was then successively assistant manager of the Greet Northern Tin Mining Co., Herberton, and draughtsman and assistant surveyor on the Stannary Hills tram-line of the Irvinebank Mining Co. He was next concerned in the designing of smelting plant for the Percy River Copper Milles, the Mungana Copper Co., and the Kingsleigh Copper Mines, Ltd.
In 1910 he left Australia for the Dutch East Indies, and was for some time engaged as general assistant and surveyor on a new gold concession in Sumatra, following which he acted as assistant engineer on the Rahman Hydraulic Tin Mines and other mines in the Federated Malay States and Siam. From 1914 onward he was occupied on his own account, and in the service of Messrs Berli & Co., of Bangkok, Siam, in the opening up of tin and wolfram properties in that country.
Mr. Webster was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1911.
Vol. 45, Trans IMM 1935-36, pp.523-4
