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MINING-HISTORY  November 2009

MINING-HISTORY November 2009

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Subject:

Re: F D Osborne & W R H Chappel - Tin Mining Pioneers in Malaya

From:

Robert Murowchick <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

The mining-history list.

Date:

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:17:26 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (232 lines)

Hi Michael,
Here are a few leads on Osborne, Chappel, and their Malaya operations.  
Good luck with your research!

Yrs,
Bob Murowchick

Dr. Robert E. Murowchick
Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology
Director
International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History
Boston University
650 Beacon Street, Suite 505
Boston, Massachusetts 02215 USA

Tel. 617/358-8000
Fax  617/358-8008
Email: <[log in to unmask]>

ICEAACH Website: http://www.bu.edu/asianarc

Boston University Department of Archaeology website: http://www.bu.edu/archaeology

Visit the new "Asian Studies at Boston University" website: http://www.bu.edu/asian



(1) There are several mentions of Osborne and Chappel in C. G.  
Warnford-Lock, Mining in Malaya for Gold and Tin (London: Crowther and  
Goodman, 1907), and several photos of their operations are also  
provided. The entire book can be downloaded as a pdf file from the  
following link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=FlMxAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=dykes+%22mining+in+malaya%22&source=bl&ots=9O2FZA2Mlt&sig=Vj4QJ8ahorHntu1uMYqIzx9f9c4&hl=en&ei=lr8OS7KUJozFlAettOWiBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

(2) see F. Douglas Osborne, 'Tin Mining in F.M.S.', Malay Weekly Mail,  
28 December 1905.

(3) Announcement of Osborne's election  as a Member of the North of  
England Institute of Mining Engineers is mentioned in the Transaction  
of the Institution of Mining Engineers, Vol. 35 (1902-1903). Osborne  
is described as "Mine Manager, Gopeng, Perak, Federated Malay States".

(4) Osborne served as first president of the Perak Turf Club
http://www.pmp.com.my/english/racing/perak_tc.asp?hidReLocationMenu=1

as well as co-founder in 1890 of the Kinta Gymkhana Club
http://www.ipohworld.org/search8/result.asp?strid=2936

(5) Heritage News (a bimonthly newsletter of the Perak Heritage  
Society), Vol. 5, Issue 1-2 (Jan-April 2008), carries this description  
of Osborne (pp. 7-8):

"The Gopeng Tin Mining Company
By Dr Ho Tak Ming
The Gopeng Tin Mining Company was started by F. Douglas Osborne, an  
Irish mining engineer who came to Kinta in 1890. He was employed as  
manager of the Leh Chin Mine at Changkat Pari near Ipoh where he  
introduced the first hydraulic monitor in the State. However, the  
terrain at Changkat Pari was not suitable for hydraulic mining as it  
was not sufficiently steep.
In 1893 Osborne obtained the concession of a hill at Gopeng which was  
suitable for hydraulic mining. However, the drawback at Gopeng was  
that there was insufficient water to work the mines - in fact, many of  
the Chinese miners were leaving Gopeng for the newly-established  
township of Kampar. Osborne proposed to pipe water in huge iron pipes  
from the sources of the Sungei Kampar at the foothills of Cameron  
Highlands, a distance of seven miles from Gopeng, to work his  
monitors. He got James Wickett of Redruth and his Cornish friends  
interested in the project. Ten shareholders subscribed £700 each to  
form the Gopeng Tin Mining Company, initially working with two  
monitors. This was the first instance of hydraulic mining for tin in  
the world. It was hugely successful and could work land profitably,  
land that had been too poor to be used under any other system.
In 1894 Osborne procured an additional concession of 300 acres for the  
company. Over time the shareholders invested another £11,000 to bring  
the number of monitors to ten in 1904, altogether spending £18,000. On  
that basis the company was reconstructed. The profit for 1905 alone  
was £18,000. All in all, Gopeng had paid back the shareholders’ money  
several times over, making them the luckiest accidental tin-miners in  
the country. Together with another mining engineer, WRH Chappel,  
Osborne founded the famous mining consultant firm of Osborne and  
Chappel, eventually managing a dozen large mines (it was known in  
Cantonese as “Sup Yee Kong Si”). The firm introduced the same system  
of mining successfully to other properties, such as New Gopeng, Kinta  
and Seremban. In 1912 the Gopeng Tin Mining Company merged with New  
Gopeng Ltd and Ulu Gopeng Ltd to form the famous Gopeng Consolidated  
Ltd, which was one of the most successful tin-mining companies in the  
country. Osborne’s idea of piping water in gigantic pipes over such an  
enormous distance to work his hydraulic monitors was a bold and  
innovative concept, which spearheaded the introduction of modern  
technology to the tin mining industry in this country."

(6) A detailed account of another family involved at several points  
with Osborne (or Osbourne) and Chappel can be found here:
  The Ephraums Family of Colonial Ceylon and Malaya
http://tormel.brinkster.net/applications/NewsManager/inc_newsmanager.asp?pcid=74&cid=75&rcid=75&ItemID=95

(7) You might want to contact the current OCIE (Osborne and Chappel  
International Engineering Sdn. Bhd.) to see if they have company  
archives and photos. Here are the contact numbers, from their web site:
Corporate Name	
OCI Engineering Sdn. Bhd.
Company No
  	179502X
Address
  	26-28 Jalan Medan Ipoh 5
Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh
31400 Ipoh, Perak
Malaysia.
Telephone Nos
  	60 5 5499337
60 5 5475337
60 5 5479722
60 5 5467933
60 5 5474720
Fax No
  	60 5 5498337
E-Mails


Contact Persons

  	[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]

Ir. Ng Kam Seng
Ir. Tan Hang Teck


(8) A mining engineer by the name of Archibald (Archie) Glenister  
spent some 60 years with Osborne and Chappel. Here's his obit,  
originally published in The Times, but reproduced here from the  
Glenister Family [genealogy] Newsletter, Issue 3, 1992, pp. 21-22. It  
is possible that Glenister's  family might have archival information  
and/or photographs of the company's early operations.

The Malaysian connection
The following article appeared in the Times newspaper, published in  
London on 3 February 1986:
MR ARCHIE GLENISTER
MrArchie Glenister, CBE, who died recently aged 95 had a long and  
distinguished career in the tin mining industry.

After eduction at a private school, he entered the Cambome School of  
Mines, where he obtained his colours for rugby, soccer and tennis.  
Graduating in 1912,
he went out to Ipoh, Malaya, and joined the firm of Osbome & Chappel  
who were general managers of a large number of tin mines. He was made  
a partner in 1920 and became senior partner in 1927. During the Second  
World War and afterwards he served in The Malay States Volunteers, was  
president of the FMS Chamber of Mines 1921-1923, and a member of the  
Legislative Council of the Federated Malay States. He came home  
permanently from Malaya in 1931 but continued active in the tin  
industry for many years and was chairman of the Malayan Chamber of  
Mines, London, from 1944 to 1955, being crated CBE in 1956. He finally  
retired in 1973 after a service with Osborne & Chappel group of 61  
years.

Alongside his professional work he was a keen naturalist and a  
knowledgeable ornithologist; he became a Scientific Fellow of the  
Zoological Society, having
presented some Malayan tigers to the London Zoo and Whipsnade. His  
book "The Birds of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Penang",  
accurately
illustrated in colour by his wife, was first published in 1951 and is  
still the standard handbook on Malayan birds; he was a member of the  
British Ornithologists
Union.

Archibald Gerald Glenister was the grandson of William Montague  
Glenister (see "The father of the Hastings police force" in GIN issue  
2). He was born on 19
December 1899 at Hastings, the son of William Joseph Glenister and  
Emma Elizabeth (nee Piper). AGG's marriage to his wife, Elizabeth  
Madeline Earl Roddis, born 11 May 1899, was registered in December  
1920 at Dorking, Surrey. AGG and Elizabeth had two children, Michael E  
Glenister and Elizabeth R Glenister, both births registered in June  
1932 at Eastbourne, so perhaps they were twins. AGG and Elizabeth  
lived in retirement at The Barn House, Blatchingdon, Sussex, which is  
where Elizabeth died on 6 June 1975, to be followed by AGG himself  
early in 1986. No details are known of either of their children.

(9) Contact the University of Malaya archives (see http://www.umlib.um.edu.my/scontents.asp?tid=25&cid=50&p=1&vs=en 
)

(10) Contact  the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF MALAYSIA (Sidek Jamil, Director  
General)
Address
Jalan Duta, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA ZIP Code: 50568
Telephone: 60 3 6201 0688
Fax: 60 3 6201 5679
http://www.arkib.gov.my/

(11) At Cambridge University, the Royal Commonwealth Society's  
collections include the photograph collection of the British  
Association of Malaysia and Singapore (BAM). A quick look turns up  
quite a few tin mining-related photos. If you work with their  
collections manager, you might discover images relating to your  
Osborne and Chappel, or images of their operations. To start, see http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115

(12) Obituaries and memorial articles for F. Douglas Osborne appears  
in The Straits Times (Singapore), May 23, 1923, page 9; May 24, page  
8; June 25, 1923, page 12;  Unfortunately, online access to the full  
text seems to be restricted to computer terminals associated with  
Singapore's National Library Board. (The Straits Times, in fact, has  
some 193 mentions of Osborne, so it would probably be worth your while  
to get full access to this newspaper's archive).

On Nov 26, 2009, at 7:23 AM, Mike Joll wrote:

Dear Members

I am currently researching the history of two early pioneers of  
European involvement in the tin mining of Malaya - Francis Douglas  
Osborne and Walter Richard Haighton Chappel. Osborne was an Irishman  
who arrived in Malaya around 1880 while Chappel was a Cornish mining  
engineer who arrived around 1890.

They formed a partnership which, with financial backing from Cornish  
investors, went on to become one of the most successful alluvial tin  
mining groups in Malaya. The finance came through the help of James  
Wickett, a partner in the stockbroker firm of Abott & Wickett, based  
in Redruth, Cornwall.

Any information on the above  would be most useful. In particular I am  
having difficulty in tracing photographs of the 3 gentlemen and any  
ideas or suggestions on where I might look for these would be most  
appreciated.

Michael Joll

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