Douglas Stuart Spens Steuart (or Stewart), British mining engineer and author, was a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS) and spent some time in South Africa around 1898-1899. In the latter year, but not earlier, he was listed as a member of the Geological Society of South Africa residing in Pretoria (though his name was spelt wrongly as D.S.S. Stewart). In 1898 he became a member of the Chemical and Metallurgical Society of South Africa. He was still listed as a member in 1905, after the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and after the society had been renamed the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, but his address was not known at this time.

A comprehensive paper by Steuart on "The mineral wealth of Zoutpansberg: the Murchison range gold-belt" was published in the Transactions of the (British) Institution of Mining Engineers (1899, Vol. 17, pp. 388-425). It was his first significant publication. Somewhat earlier geological accounts of this 140 km long, relatively narrow, east-north-east trending schist belt in the Low Veld of the north-eastern Transvaal had been published by A.R. Sawyer* (1892), C. Wilson-Moore* (1896), and A.F.J. Bordeaux* (1898). Gold had been discovered in the range in 1870.

Later Steuart wrote a booklet on The metalliferous deposits of Cornwall and Devon (London, 1913, 51pp). No other scientific books by him are known. However, Douglas Stuart Spens Steuart of London, presumably him, was granted patents for a headgear attachment for listening devices (1929), a mouthpiece arrangement for use with telephones (1931), and apparatus for conducting sound (1937).

Towards the end of his life he published two small works of fiction, The wolf-man's story (1947) and The warning vision (1949). He was married to Mary Stuart Spens Stewart, with whom he had a son.

List of sources:

Chemical and Metallurgical Society of South Africa. Proceedings, 1897-1899, Vol. 2, lists of members.

FamilySearch: Douglas Stuart Spens Steuart, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q5MZ-T8KZ?lang=en AND Douglas Stuart Spens Stewart, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7G9-ZLB?lang=en

Geological Society of South Africa. Transactions, 1899, Vol. 4, list of members.

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

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

South African Committee for Stratigraphy. Stratigraphy of South Africa. Part 1. Lithostratigraphy... (p. 45). Pretoria: Geological Survey, Handbook 8, 1980.

Steuart, Douglas Stuart Spens. Google patents. https://patents.google.com/patent/US1818654, https://patents.google.com/patent/FR706681A/en US4325121.pdf, https://patents.google.com/patent/US1698774 and https://patents.google.com/patent/US2087052

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-12-27 09:23:48