Rowland Gascoyne, mining engineer, was the son of William Gascoygne and his wife Frances Rowland. He was a member of the (British) Institute of Mining Engineers and was employed at Mapperley Collieries, Derby, in 1889-1890. Later he published papers on "Transvaal coal-fields" (Transactions of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1897) and "Coal-fields of Chili" (Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, 1898). In 1899 he was the superintendent of the Douglas Colliery and in that capacity offered the use of the mine to the government of the South African Republic should war break out. Shortly after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he was in the Transvaal, for in 1903 he participated in the discussion of a paper on the central South African coal-field, delivered by G.S. Corstorphine* before the Geological Society of South Africa. That same year he became a member of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa. He practiced as a mining engineer in Johannesburg in 1905, but during 1906-1908 was the leaseholder of a coal mine on the Ermelo townlands.

In September 1912 Gascoyne contributed a comprehensive article on "The coalfields of South Africa" to the 21st anniversary number of the South African Mining Journal (pp. 363-382). He was still in South Africa in 1916-1917, when he contributed to the discussion of a paper on the Natal coalfields, delivered by W.T. Heslop* before the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa. He was married to Edith Mary Burley in 1883 and died in Germiston in 1924.

List of sources:

Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa. Proceedings, 1902-1903, Vol. 3, list of members; Journal, 1904/5, Vol. 5, Members.

Durham Mining Museum. Mining engineers. Retrieved from http://www.dmm.org.uk/transime/u01-mg.htm on 2017-1-10.

FamilySearch: Rowland Gascoygne. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C91P-C95P-L?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:W75X-SZ6Z&action=view and https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KJK4-Z24

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology to the end of 1920. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 18, 1922.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Rowland Gascoyne / R. Gascoyne.

Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific papers [1800-1900]. London: Royal Society, 1867-1925.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-06-18 10:11:52