Albert Edward (sometimes Eduard) Payne, mine surveyor, mining engineer and mine manager, was educated at the Merchant Taylors School and at the Royal School of Mines, London. He became an associate of the Royal School of Mines (ARSM) and a member of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (MIMM). In January 1897 he came to South Africa and in 1903 was elected the first president of the Institute of Mine Surveyors, Transvaal. At that time he resided in Johannesburg. In 1903 he was a member (later a life member) of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (founded in 1902) and the next year read a paper on "The mine surveyor and his work on the Witwatersrand" at the association's annual congress in Johannesburg. His paper was published in the association's Report for 1904 (pp. 393-402). In 1906 he delivered a further paper on "An underground traverse" at the association's congress in Kimberley (Report, 1905/6, pp. 401-419). By 1905 he resided in Germiston, where he worked as a mine surveyor for the New Primrose Gold Mining Company. He was still living in Germiston in 1910, but by 1914 had moved to Langlaagte, Johannesburg. For some time he was manager of the Consolidated Langlaagte Mine and of Van Ryn Deep. He became a member of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa in 1903 and of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1904. In later years he, with H. Pirow* and F.G.A Roberts, contributed an "Historical review of the mining conditions on the Witwatersrand and the changes which have taken place since the early days of the fields" to the Silicosis Records of the International Conference held at Johannesburg, 1930.

On 5 August 1907 Payne married Louisa A.F. Curry (sometimes Currie), with whom he had four children. After her death in 1939 he married Hilda E. Elsom.

List of sources:

Geological Society of South Africa. Transactions (and Proceedings), 1906, Vol. 10; 1915, Vol. 18; and 1920, Vol. 23: Lists of members.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by A.E. Payne.

Journal of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, 1904/5, Vol. 5, Members.

National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 4266/52: death notice, Albert Edward Payne.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Payne, Albert Edward / Payne, Albert Eduard / Payne, A.E.

Orr, J. Presidential address. Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa, Annual Proceedings, pp. 15-86.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1903, 1904, 1905/6, 1910, 1918.

South African who's who, 1931/2, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1945.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-08-26 11:26:58