Maurice Deacon
Maurice Deacon (1850-1941)
1941 Obituary [1]
MAURICE DEACON was born on the 11th November, 1850, and died at Whatstandwell, near Matlock, on the 25th September, 1941.
After serving his pupilage, in 1866 and 1867, with Messrs. Giles and Brookhouse, of Derby, he was engaged in making geological plans for the Coal Commission and in surveying coal and iron-ore deposits in South Wales.
In 1871 he was appointed resident engineer and manager of the Plasycoed Colliery, South Wales, and in 1874 became consulting engineer to the Bath Colliery Company.
In 1876 he designed and superintended the construction of a large mining plant at Bettisfield colliery, North Wales, and in 1878 started a consulting practice at Pontypool. He also acted as general manager and engineer to the Manners Colliery Company, of Ilkeston, and the Blackwell Colliery Company, and as consulting engineer to the West Hallam Coal & Iron Company.
In 1896 he began his long association with the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Co., Ltd., at first as general manager and later as managing director, which position he occupied until 1924, being largely responsible for the success of the Company.
In addition he served as chairman or director of numerous other colliery and commercial undertakings and assisted in the development and management of many collieries, iron and steel works, rolling mills, foundries, coke-ovens, and by-product plants in Great Britain and abroad. He also appeared frequently as an expert witness before Parliamentary Committees in connexion with mining questions.
During the 1914-18 war he acted as adviser to the War Office in connexion with the reconstruction of the French coal mines destroyed by the Germans, and was a member of a committee of French mining engineers under the French Ministry of Mines....[more]
1941 Obituary [2]