Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Brough, Bennett Hooper

1498306Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, Volume 1 — Brough, Bennett Hooper1912Ernest Clarke

BROUGH, BENNETT HOOPER (1860–1908), mining expert, born at Clapham on Sept. 1860, was elder son of John Cargill Brough, F.C.S., librarian of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, and nephew of Robert Barnabas Brough [q. v.], William Brough [q. v.J, and Lionel Brough [q. v. Suppl. II]. His father died when he was twelve. With the aid of funds raised by friends, Bennett was sent to the City of London School. Thence he passed in 1878 to the Royal School of Mines, of which he became an associate in 1881. The following year was spent at the Royal Prussian Mining Academy at Clausthal in the Harz. In 1882 Brough was appointed assistant to Sir Warington W. Smyth [q. v.], professor of mining at the Royal School of Mines, and in 1886 he started at the school a course in mine surveying, which proved a great success. His 'Treatise on Mine Surveying,' of which the first edition appeared in 1888, reached its thirteenth edition in 1907. From 1883 to 1893 he was co-editor of the 'Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute,' and in 1893 became secretary of that institute, a post which he retained till his death. His services were constantly in request as abstractor, writer, lecturer, and juror on mining subjects. He contributed to 'Chambers's Encyclopaedia' the article on 'Mining,' and to the 'Dictionary of Applied Chemistry' the article on 'Fuel.' The 'Journals' of the Iron and Steel Institute, Institution of Mining Engineers, Society of Arts, and other publications contain numerous articles from his prolific pen. He was on the governing bodies of the Institute of Chemistry, Chemical Society, and Institute of Secretaries. He was also a knight of the Swedish Order of Vasa. On 1 Oct. 1908, whilst at Middlesbrough for a meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, Brough was suddenly taken ill and died at a nursing home at Newcastle two days later, being buried in the Surbiton and Kingston cemetery. He married in 1895 Barbara, daughter of Edward Lloyd, barrister at law (who was assassinated near Athens in 1870), and had by her one son and one daughter.

[Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1908, lxxviii. 462–3 (with portrait); Trans. Chemical Soc. xcv. 1909; family information.]

E. C.