James Henry Ronaldson, a Scottish mining engineer, was the son of Thomas Shirreff Ronaldson and his wife Janet Carfrae, born Martine. He took art classes at the University of Edinburgh, then started an apprenticeship in coal mining in 1877 and qualified as colliery manager. In 1881 he went to the University of Liège, Belgium, where he studied metallurgy and industrial chemistry. From 1882 to 1886 he worked as a surveyor and later manager of collieries in Scotland and England and was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. In 1887 he went to Australia, where he acquired further experience in mining engineering. He contributed a paper on "Coal mining in New South Wales" to the Report of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science for 1898. From 1890 to 1896 he was general manager of the Mt Kemble Coal and Oil Company in New South Wales. Thereafter he worked as a consulting mining engineer in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.

In 1901 Ronaldson was engaged to examine various gold dredging properties in Zululand, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. He settled in South Africa in 1902, just after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), and started practicing as a mining engineer in Johannesburg. He became a member of the Geological Society of South Africa and in 1907 served as both honorary secretary of the society and honorary editor of its Transactions. He translated a comprehensive paper by G.A.F. Molengraaff*, "Géologie de la République Sud-Africaine du Transvaal" (1901) into English and published it, with some additions and corrections, in the form of a monograph entitled Geology of the Transvaal (Johannesburg, 1904, 90 pp). In 1905 he and Thomas Quentrall* reported to the government of the Cape Colony on the mineral resources of Namaqualand and the advisability of the government taking over the Port Nolloth to O'Kiep railway. That same year Ronaldson presented a paper on "The copper deposits of Little Namaqualand" at the joint meeting in South Africa of the British and South African Associations for the Advancement of Science, describing the history of their discovery, their geology, types of ores found and the mines operating in the region. The paper was included in the Addresses and papers... published after the meeting. He also contributed "Notes on the copper deposits of Little Namaqualand" to the Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa (1905, Vol. 8, pp. 158-166). In 1904 he and his wife both joined the South African Association for the Advancement of Science and that same year he presented a paper on "Hydraulic sluicing and dredging for gold" at its second annual congress held in Johannesburg (Report, 1904, pp. 357-369).

By 1910 Ronaldson resided in Salisbury (now Harare, Zimbabwe) where he represented the General Mining and Finance Corporation, Ltd. Early in 1912 he moved to London and during World War I (1914-1918) served in the Ministry of Munitions and then as supervisor of an explosives factory. After the war he resumed his private practice, for some years in partnership with Dr William Cullen*. In later years he wrote a monograph entitled Coal (1920, 166 pp) for the Mineral Resources Committee of the Imperial Institute, which was published by the Institute in London. With Cullen he also produced an article entitled "Data on the use of explosives in mining" (Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 1935-6). He was elected a member of the Institution in 1912. He was survived by his wife, Jane Brodie, born Purves, but had no children.

List of sources:
Addresses and papers read at the joint meeting of the British and South African Associations for the Advancement of Science held in South Africa, 1905. Johannesburg: SAAAS.

Anhaeusser, C.R. (ed.) A century of geological endeavour in southern Africa, 1895-1995 (p. 20). Johannesburg: Geological Society of SA, 1997.

Find a Grave: James Henry Ronaldson. Retrieved from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173890609/james-henry-ronaldson on 4 July 2020.

Geological Society of South Africa. Proceedings, 1915, Vol. 18, p. xii, past secretaries; Transactions, 1906, Vol. 10, list of members.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology to the end of 1920. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 18, 1922.

National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 4762/53: death notice, James Henry Ronaldson.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

Northern Mines Research Society. James Henry Ronaldson. Retrieved from https://www.nmrs.org.uk/resources/obituaries-of-members/obituaries-of-members-names-beginning-with-r/james-henry-ronaldson/ on 4 July 2020.

Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific papers [1800-1900]. London: Royal Society, 1867-1925.

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

South African bibliography to the year 1925. London: Mansell, 1979.

South African who's who, 1908, 1909.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2020-07-04 11:20:25