Professor Lewis Henry Cooke died at Putney Hospital 23rd August 1929 from injuries received in a bicycle accident on Wimbledon Common two days previously; and the news of his sudden death came as a great shock to all who knew him and had counted on his continuing to render for many years to come his invaluable services to the mining community of the world.
He was born at Cottingham, Northamptonshire, 8th July 1870 and received his early education at Northampton Grammar School, where he gave ample proof of his sterling qualities. In 1889 he won a National Scholarship, the most valuable of entirely open scholarships of that period; and bearing this distinction, he became a student at the Royal School of Mines.
Throughout his academic career his zeal, his thoroughness and his ability were manifest; and when in 1892 he was awarded the De la Beche Medal and the Associateship in both Mining and Metallurgy and was appointed Assistant to the Instructor in Mine-Surveying, the immediate expectations of the many whose interest he had aroused were realized. In 1893 his services were temporarily secured by the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, where he was Lecturer in Mining till 1896, when he returned to his alma mater. Then commenced his long continuous and distinguished work in mine-surveying at the Royal School of Mines, where his status as the one responsible for the instruction in that subject was raised in succession from Instructor to Lecturer, to Assistant Professor and finally to Professor: evidence at once of the great work he was doing and of the generous appreciation of it by those in authority.
As the long period from 1896 to 1929 unfolded itself, it became more and more obvious that the man was a zealot, an enthusiast, a builder, and eventually the protagonist of mine-surveying. He caused the theodolite to be used in metalliferous mines and collieries. He coaxed, cajoled and annoyed conservatively minded instrument makers until they altered their designs so as to meet the needs of the mine-surveyors. Where devices and methods necessary to precision were non-existent, he invented them. He knew the value of time and preached about it. He sifted the world’s mine-surveying literature. He selected or evolved the best methods of tabulating results. He was an eclectic as well as a fighter. He never spared himself and had no use for the go-easy. He urged and inspired his students, whose esteem and affection he always won; for they saw him to be a master-man, a potent personality. He ever gave a hearty welcome to his old students, who never failed to find in him a kindly adviser and helper and who while enjoying his spontaneous hospitality gave to him the interesting news of their experiences.
Among many other contributions to the literature of mine-surveying and kindred subjects, Professor‘ Cooke wrote a monograph on mine-surveying, published in 1907, and prepared for the Institution four lengthy papers besides taking part in the discussions on twenty-two other papers submitted to the Institution. All of his papers were advanced, progressive and stimulating; and they produced such quantities of illuminating response that the whole constitutes a most important part of the best of mine-surveying literature.
In recognition of the services he had rendered to the mining community, he was in 1913 awarded ‘The Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd.’ Premium, and in 1925 the Gold Medal. In 1925 he was made Correspondierendes Ehrenmitglied des Deutschen Markscheidervereins and in 1929, shortly before his death, President of the Institute of Mine-Surveyors of Great Britain.
The high value belonging to his ability and opinions is borne witness to by the following extracts from p.61 of the 1930 Report to the Secretary for Mines of the Committee appointed by him to inquire into the qualifications and recruitment of Officials of Mines, under the Coal Mines Act:
‘Reference was made from time to time both to the better type which enters the Royal School of Mines and to the high quality of training in surveying which this institution affords.’
‘We had hoped to have had the benefit of the views of Professor L.H. Cooke under whose direction training in surveying at the Royal School of Mines has developed in recent years, but his death in August, 1929, occurred before we had the privilege of hearing him.’
So hard and so continuously did Professor Cooke toil that his knowledge of mine-surveying became peerless; and thus the loss of him is irreparable. The improvements he effected in surveying have fortunately become established in the world’s practice; but it is a matter of deep regret that the embodiment of his knowledge in literary form, which he had projected, is not likely to appear.
Lewis Henry Cooke was made a Member of the Institution in 1909; and in 1923 he was elected a Member of the Council, on which he continued to serve until his decease.
Contributed by F.W.A.
