Charles Thomas Roberts
Charles Thomas Roberts (1861-1918)
1919 Obituary [1]
CHARLES THOMAS ROBERTS was born at Alderton, Suffolk, on 16th October 1861, and was educated at Kesgrave Hall School, Suffolk.
In April 1877 he was articled for three years to a Civil Engineer in Brussels, and during part of the period he worked in the shops of Messrs. Melling Fréres at Carreghem, near Brussels.
In 1880 he became a draughtsman in the works of Messrs. E. R. and F. Turner, of Ipswich, where he remained until 1887, when he went to South Africa to represent the firm in the Transvaal, and continued in this work until 1891.
He then set up in practice as consulting engineer in Johannesburg, and in this capacity he designed surface mining plants, and supervised their erection, in some of the principal mines.
In 1895 he was appointed consulting mechanical engineer to the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co., and in the following year he acted in a similar capacity to the French South African Development Co., in Rhodesia, and in 1899 to the United Excelsior Mines, and other companies.
He returned to England in 1904, and two years later he proceeded to Mysore, India, to take up the post of Chief Engineer to the Champion Reef Gold Mining Co., where he designed and carried out the extensive re-equipment of the whole plant.
He held this position up to the time of his death, which occurred suddenly at Madras on 20th November 1918, at the age of fifty-seven. He became an Associate Member of this Institution in 1893, and a Member in 1907.
He was also a Member of the Federated Institution of Mining Engineers.