John Alexander Logan, mine manager, was the son of James Gibson Logan. He was employed in the coal mining industry in County Durham during the eighteen-eighties and by 1891 was a colliery manager. He married Margaret Jane Wilkinson, with whom he had three daughters and a son. The family later moved to a colliery situated in the Forest of Dean, on the border of Gloucestershire and Wales. Alexander, followed later by the rest of his family, came to South Africa around 1900 to work at the Ballengeich mine, some 20 km south of Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal. He became a mine manager and remained in or near Newcastle for the rest of his life. He was the author of Practical mining in South Africa (252 p.), published in Durban in 1908. The book was intended for the use of mine managers, mining engineers, students, and others interested in mining operations.
