Peregrine O. Wilson, Fellow of the Geological Society of London, arrived in South Africa in April 1888 on the USS Spartan, in the company of C.J. Alford*. He was sent out by European investors to take charge of the mine "Roarty's Luck", adjoining the Sheba Reef near Barberton. In January the next year he reported on the mining done at Consort Reef, as part of the annual report by the chairman of the Consort Reef Gold Mining Company, in the Barberton Herald.

Wilson was a foundation member of the Barberton Scientific and Literary Society - the first scientific society in the Transvaal, established in June 1888. He participated actively in its proceedings and at the annual general meeting in July 1889 was elected vice-president.

In 1894 Wilson was being considered for an appointment as mining inspector on the Witwatersrand. The next year he became a foundation member of the Geological Society of South Africa and served on its first executive council until 1897. At this time he was president of the Klerksdorp Chamber of Mines. By 1899 he was associated with the Klerksdorp Gold Mining Company and applied for a permit to export a number of diamonds.

List of sources:
Barberton Herald, 17 April 1888, Arrivals for the gold fields; 29 June 1888, The Barberton Literary and Scientific Society; 25 January 1889, Consort Reef Gold Mining Company.

Barberton Scientific and Literary Society. Proceedings, July 1888 - October 1889.

Geological Society of South Africa. Transactions, 1895-1897, Vol. 1-2.

Gold Fields News, 27 June 1888, Scientific and Literary Society.

Harger, H.S. Historical notes on the Geological Society of South Africa. Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa, 1939, Vol. 42, pp. lxvii-lxxiv.

Miscellaneous: "Geological Society of South Africa". Geological Magazine, 1895, Vol. 2(5), p. 240. Retrieved on 2 June 2021 from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/abs/geological-society-of-south-africa/7E572F335CC2A3193B70770741EEC723

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to P.O. Wilson.

Plug, C. Early scientific and professional societies in the Transvaal: Barberton 1887-1889. South African Journal of Cultural History, 1990, Vol. 4(3), pp. 190-199.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2021-06-02 12:08:02