Henry Benedict Wall died suddenly after an operation at Windsor Hospital on September 14th, 1943, at the age of 60.
He received his technical training at the Camborne School of Mines; and in 1902 was appointed surveyor to the Hlabisa Coalfields in Zululand. In 1903 he joined the staff of the North Rand Gold Mines, Ltd., and until 1905 he prospected and developed several mining properties in the Transvaal and former Orange River Colony.
In 1906 he went to Canada, and for a few months was engaged in surveying for the Grand Trunk Railway, but in the following year returned to England as head surveyor to the Wheal Sisters and Wheal Merth group of mines in Cornwall.
In 1907 he accompanied an expedition to the Malay Peninsula, and in 1908 was appointed chief assistant to the Inspector-General of Mines for Egypt. In this capacity he surveyed the Egyptian oil belt on the Red Sea coast for two years, and examined many ancient workings in the Eastern Desert. From 1910 to 1912 he was surveyor and manager to the Wallis Company, Gold Coast, and from 1912 to 1914 mining engineer to the Siamese Tin Syndicate in Siam.
During the last war he served in the Royal Engineers in France and India, and on his demobilization in 1919, with the rank of captain, returned to his post in Siam. Two years later he went to the Belgian Congo, and reported on tin areas in Katanga for the Union Miniére, returning to England in 1922. In the period 1924-27 Mr. Wall made two visits to Malaya and Siam, and from 1928 to 1930 was in charge of a large prospecting party sent to Uganda by Tanganyika Concessions, Ltd. In 1933 he set up in practice as a consulting mining engineer in Kakamega, Kenya, where he remained until 1939. During the present war he held an appointment in the Opencast Coal Directorate of the Ministry of Works and Planning.
Mr. Wall was elected a Student of the Institution in 1907, and was transferred to Associateship in 1909.
Vol. 53, Trans IMM 1943-44, p.441
