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Captain John Addis
Born in 1833 in Olveston, Gloucestershire, John Addis was the third child of James Addis and Sarah Smith. Following the boom in gold mining in Australia in the 50's, John then went to Ballarat in Victoria in 1851 and was mining there for a couple of years.
In December 1853, John married Ruth Hall, his first wife but their happiness was short-lived as John's mother, Sarah passed away on Christmas day. The following year, Ruth gave birth to John's first child, Mary Elizabeth Addis in Victoria, Australia. Ruth gave birth to 4 other children before her passing in 1862 at the age of 39. 1863 wasn't a much better year as John's father, James passed away in Gloucestershire at the age of 72.
5 years following the death of his father, John married Charlotte Louisa Bendall, his second wife in 1868. Charlotte gave birth to 3 children before her passing in 1871. That same year, John married Elizabeth Palmer, his third wife whom he had 6 children with. He also wrote a report on the Cardigan Consols Gold Mining Co, Sago Hill addressed to the editor of The Ballarat Star. 3 years later, John Addis was granted a certificate by the Ballarat School of Mines (est. 1869) where he was recognised as a second-class, underground manager alluvial mining.
According to an article published in The Mercury (Tasmania), Mr. John Addis arrived to take over the position as manager of The Prince George Co. from Mr. J. Urquhart on the 2nd week of November 1881. In a separate interview that same year, John also talked about his experience in lode mining as well as managing mines in Cornwall. Two years later, it was reported in The Mercury that John Addis took over as manager of the Wyniford Co. following the resignation of Mr. Charles McGough. In 1884, John was reported as the manager of The Red Hill Gold Mining Co., Tingha (New South Wales) where a fair amount of tin was yielded.
In 1891, John made his way to Malaya for the first time where over the course of a couple of years made his name as the Managing Director of the Bukit Mas Mining Co. Ltd of Tapah. He was then hired by Foo Choo Choon to work in the Tronoh mines and made the chinese towkay a very rich man as his Victorian mining methods made a profit of 20,000 dollars a month for 3 and a half years.
John would later join as managing director of the Sungei Raia Tin Mining Company in January of 1908 where he would leave Ipoh the following month to raise capital for the company in Australia. John Addis passed away in his home in Ipoh a couple of months later at the old age of 74.
To read more about John Addis and the Tronoh mines, click here.
To read more about Towkay Foo Choo Choon, click here.
The link below is a timeline that we've put together from our findings on John Addis.