Civil servant.
Trained in Arts and Mining at McGill University in Montreal, he worked in the mining industry in British Columbia and Ontario, teaching in the School of Mines at Haileybury, Ontario from 1913 to 1915. In the latter year, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in France and Belgium, winning promotion to the rank of Captain. Upon his discharge in 1919, he returned to Haileybury. He joined the Ontario Department of Mines in 1920 and worked as a mine inspector. He came to Manitoba in 1928, at the suggestion of R. C. Wallace, to become Chief Inspector of mines in Manitoba. With the transfer of natural resources from the federal government to Manitoba in 1930, he was appointed Director of the Mines Branch in the newly established Department of Mines and Natural Resources, holding the position until his retirement in November 1945.
He served as Vice-President (1933-34) and President (1936-37) of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, being made a Life Member in 1945. He was also a Life Member of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and Chairman of its Winnipeg Branch (1930-31). He served two terms as President of the Professional Engineers of Manitoba (1941, 1944). He was a member of the Masons and the Canadian Legion.
He died at Winnipeg on 11 December 1957 and was buried at Clarence, Ontario.
His articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:
Mining in Manitoba
MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1948-49 Season
“Mine director Geo. E. Cole retires”, Winnipeg Tribune, 4 December 1945. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B9]
“Former mines director, George Edward Cole dies”, Winnipeg Free Press, 11 December 1957.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 12 December 1957.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 November 2010
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