Herbert Kirkhouse (c.1832-1904)
1904 Obituary in The Engineer. One of the proprietors of Tylorstown Collieries, Rhondda Valley [1]
1904 Obituary [2]
HERBERT KIRKHOUSE died at his residence at Pontsticill, near Merthyr, on September 3, 1904, at the age of seventy-two. He was well-known Welsh mining engineer, who had been prominently connected during the past half-century with the development of the mining industry in the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys. He came of a well-known Merthyr family, formerly connected with the Cyfartha Works, Dowlais.
Though more especially remembered in association with the Hirwain and Tylorstown Collieries, he had a great reputation as an advisory engineer throughout the South Wales coalfield. He was also connected with the slate industries of North Wales and Pembrokeshire. He was a magistrate for the counties of Glamorgan and Brecknock, a member of the Brecon County Council, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a past-president of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1899.
1904 Obituary [3]
WE regret to have to announce the death on the 3rd inst., in his seventy-third year, of Mr. Kirkhouse, lately one of the proprietors of Tyler's Town Collieries, Rhondda Valley, and a mining engineer of repute in the Glamorganshire coalfield. He was a son of Mr. Henry Kirkhouse, mine agent at Cyfarthfa, and began a long experience at Mr. Crawshay's collieries, Hirwain. He was next associated with Messrs. Thomas and Joseph, and with Mr. D. Williams, in leading Aberdare collieries; and next in Rhondda collieries, and eventually became partner with Mr. Tyler. He possessed the inventive faculty to a marked extent which has characterised leading South Wales mining engineers, and was notable as the inventor of the "Harbour of Refuge" scheme for affording shelter near lamp cabins in case of explosion. He was also one of the earliest to devise a means for watering small coal, and thus lessen the violence of coal explosions. He figured in the rescue band of many explosions as one of the most fearless, and was connected with the administrative government of the coal area of South Wales and Monmouthshire.