Malcolm Fergusson (or Ferguson), mining engineer, was the son of John Ferguson and Julia Anna Fisher. He was an associate of the Royal School of Mines, London, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. In July 1902, shortly after the end of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), he was appointed as assistant inspector of mines in the Transvaal Colony. During the next decade he became deputy inspector of mines in the office of the government mining engineer (July 1903), and, shortly after the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, inspector of mines at Krugersdorp (April 1911). From June 1916 to May 1917, during World War I (1914-1918), he was acting government mining engineer during the absence of R.N. Kotze*, until the appointment of U.P. Swinburne*. He was again appointed as acting government mining engineer in 1928.

Fergusson wrote the Report of the Departmental Committee on Underground Mining Contracts (Witwatersrand Mines) (Pretoria, 1917). In collaboration with P.A. Wagner* he described "Lead and vanadium in the Transvaal" (South African Mining and Engineering Journal, 1920) and "Vanadinite in Marico district" (South African Journal of Industries, 1921). He became a member of the Chemical Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa and of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science in 1903. Later he was a member of the South African Institution of Engineers.

Fergusson was married in 1906 to Olive Grace Neave Hill, with whom he had four daughters.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: Malcolm Fergusson. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/M447-QVT

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za/ Publications by Malcolm Fergusson.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoirs No. 18 (1922) and 25 (1927).

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

National Archives Repository (TAB), Source MHG, Vol. 0, Ref. 4144/49: Death notice, Malcolm Fergusson.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS), at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Malcolm Fergusson / M. Fergusson.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1903, 1905/6, Lists of members.

Transvaal civil service list, 1906.

Union of South Africa. Public Service List, 1914. Pretoria: Government Printer, 1914.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2024-04-30 09:51:22