Sir Richard Augustine Studdert Redmayne, K.C.B., Past-President of the Institution, died at Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, on 27th December, 1955, at the age of 90.
He was born at South Dene, Gateshead-on-Tyne, and was educated privately until he entered the College of Science, University of Durham, in 1881. He left in 1883 to become a mining apprentice at Hetton Collieries, Co. Durham, and was promoted undermanager seven years later at the age of 25. He left in 1891 for Natal, South Africa, where he worked at collieries for two years as general manager, also reporting and inspecting mining properties. He returned to England to take up the post of resident manager of Seaton Delaval Collieries, Northumberland, where he remained for nine years.
In 1902 he was appointed Professor of Mining in the then new University of Birmingham; there he continued investigations on the improvement of safety apparatus.
He was in 1908 made the first holder of the post of H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines. He presided over the committee appointed by the Royal Commission on Mines to inquire into the causes of and means of preventing accidents from falls of ground, underground haulage and shafts. During the 1914-18 war he was also assistant to the Controller of Coal Mines.
Sir Richard resigned in 1919 in order to become Chairman of the Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau, and was in 1925 appointed Chairman of the Advisory Council on Minerals to the Imperial Institute, of which he was for a time acting director. He headed the sectional committee for mining and metallurgy at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. In 1934 he was appointed independent chairman of the National Joint Conciliation Board for Road Motor Transport. He maintained the private practice of consulting mining engineer begun some years before. He had earlier been a director of Stafford and Florence Coal and Iron Co., and of the Blaina (South Wales) Colliery Co., later joining the board of Dixon Corbitt, Ltd., rope manufacturers, and becoming chairman.
He served in various capacities during the 1939-45 war, still remaining chairman of the Road Haulage Wages Board and of the Agricultural Wages Committee for Essex, and a member of the Southern Region Valuation Board under the Coal Commission. Sir Richard had been chairman of the Board for Mining Examinations from 1912 to 1950.
He held the degree of M.Sc. In 1912 he received the honour of C.B. and was knighted in 1914, and was also Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
Sir Richard was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1904. He had served as Member of Council without a break from 1909 until 1927, holding the office of President in 1916. His Presidential Address, ‘British mining industry in relation to the war,’ is published in the Transactions of the Institution (vol. 25, 1915-16); he contributed another paper also to the Transactions — ‘The organization and work of the Mineral Resources Department of the Imperial Institute’ (vol. 36, 1926-27). He had been a member of the Institution of Mining Engineers since 1889 and was made an honorary member in 1909; he had held office as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1934, and was a member of many other societies. He had for 33 years been President of the Institute of Professional Civil Servants.
Vol. 65, Trans I.M.M., 1955-56, pp.251-52
