Edward Rengers Schoch, mining engineer, was the son of Wilhelm August Schoch and his wife Henriette Caroline van Aylva Baroness Schoch (born Rengers) and a brother of the surveyor Herman Eugene Schoch*. He was educated in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and Freiburg, Germany, qualifying as a mining engineer. In 1905 he wrote a paper in the Engineering and Mining Journal on 'The genesis of the Tarkwa banket, Gold Coast Colony'. In 1906 he resided in Johannesburg. At some time in his career he was the manager of the New Boksburg Gold Mine (Linder, 1997).

Schoch published a paper on 'Ancient tin mines of the Transvaal' in the Journal of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa (1918). From 1915 or earlier he was associated with the Rooiberg Minerals Developing Company and its Rooiberg Tin Mines, near Warmbaths (now Bela-Bela, Limpopo) for some years. During this period he contributed an article on 'Hydraulic prospecting at the Rooiberg Tin Mines' to the South African Mining and Engineering Journal (1919). In 1918 and in 1920 he had an address in Johannesburg, however, he remained active in the Bushveld Igneous Complex region for many years, and in 1929 contributed two papers to the Journal of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, one on the nickel and copper deposits in the norite complex west of the Pilansberg, the other on nickel occurrences in the Rustenburg District.

Schoch became a member of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1905 and a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science in 1917. He was also a member of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. In 1924 he was appointed as a member of the Liquor Licensing Court for the District of Waterberg and as a justice of the peace at Warmbaths. He appears to have remained in that town for the rest of his life. He was not married.

List of sources:

Google Scholar, at http://scholar.google.co.za Publication by E.R. Schoch.

Hall, A.L. Bibliography of South African geology. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoirs No. 18 (1922) and 27 (1931).

Hubbard, P. A bibliography of Zimbabwean archaeology to 2005, Version 1.0, January 2007 (digital file, received from author).

Linder, A. The Swiss at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1971. Basle: Basle Afrika Bibliographien, 1997.

National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 317/42, Death notice, Edward Rengers Schoch.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS), at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Edward Rengers Schoch / E.R. Schoch.

Report of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, 1918, list of members.

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

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-11-13 10:04:24