William Edgar Laity Edmonds died at Penzance, Cornwall, on June 2nd, 1923, aged 52 years.
At the age of 16 he became a miner in Cornwall and worked its such for 6 or 7 years, during which time he attended classes at the mining schools at Redruth and Camborne, passing with honours in the principles of mining, ore-dressing and inorganic chemistry, and obtaining for the general excellence of his work the medal of the Mining Institute of Cornwall.
In 1893 he was appointed assayer to the Winner Gold Mining Co., South Africa, and remained with that company for about two years. He held various other appointments in South Africa as underground foreman and assayer, until the outbreak of the Boer War.
Leaving South Africa in 1900, he was for two years in Australasia examining and reporting on properties for the Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Co., Ltd., and on the completion of his work there he was appointed manager of the Yenisei Copper Company’s properties in Siberia.
In 1905 he returned to South Africa to take charge of the Hippo Mine of the Rhodesia Copper Co., Ltd., in North West Rhodesia. Some years litter he joined the mining department of the Niger Co., Ltd, at Jos, Northern Nigeria.
Mr. Edmonds was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1902.
Vol. 33, Trans IMM 1923-24, p.532
