Leslie Williams
WILLIAMS, Leslie Ballesat, BA BE MAIM MIMM (1878-1942)
Leslie was born at Narrabri in New South Wales on August 12, 1878, the second son of storekeeper Gulielmas Williams and his wife Clara Williams nee Yanton. He was educated at East Maitland Public School before attending Sydney University in 1896. He graduated in 1902 with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining and Metallurgy).
Between 1902 and 1904 he worked at Mount Garnet Copper and Silver Mines in Queensland. In 1904 he joined Bewick, Moreing and Company to be Chemist and Assayer at the Great Fingall.
In February 1907, he was promoted to field engineer and inspecting engineer for Bewick, Moreing and Company at Kalgoorlie. Over the next ten years he carried out ninety per cent of the company’s inspections of mine sites in the northern goldfields of Murchison, Yalgoo, East Murchison and Mount Margaret. He also worked as field engineer with Oroya Brownhill and Oroya Exploration Companies and the Lake View and Oroya Exploration Company. He was appointed as superintendent of the Queen of the Hills Gold Mine, near Meekatharra, in 1912.
From 1917 to 1922 he was General Manager of Yuanmi Gold Mines, Ltd.
In December 1922 he travelled to England via South Africa and in 1923 he was appointed General Manager of the Mill Close Lead Mine at Darley Dale, Derbyshire.
He had married Mary Price, the daughter of Kalgoorlie Mining Consultant, Edward Graham Price, in Perth on December 30, 1912, and they had three children.
He was elected a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1910. He was Chairman of the Murchison Committee of the WA Chamber of Mines in 1915-16.
Leslie died on January 29, 1942, in England and was survived by his wife and three children.
References:
Denis A Cumming and Richard G Harley, Westralian Founders of Twentieth Century Mining, Richard G Hartley, Rossmoyne, 2014.
Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 29.11.1910, p. 9.
Leslie Ballesat Williams - Northern Mine Research Society (nmrs.org.uk) accessed 30.09.2022.
Kalgoorlie Miner, 9.7.1942, p. 2.
