Interview with Edwin John Beer [sound recording]

Edwin Beer, who was educated as a chemist and was involved in the development of viscose, recalles his life in India from 1908 to 1924. The recollections are mostly concerned with prospecting for minerals. Summary of interview:- Childhood and early life; work in England as a chemist; going to Bombay in 1908 to work on analysing manganese ore samples; losing his job and travelling India by train lloking for work; mineral prospecting and filling in the geological map of India; relations of the British and Indians, and his own personal relations with them; attitude of Indians to an unemployed European; opinions of Indian independence and British administration; the Amritsar massacre; experiences and sights seen when prospecting; ways of life of Indians and British: starting up Portland cement export trade: reasons for leaving India; methods of prospecting: living in the Kashmir region; the heat; his last day in India; servants; summing up of his experiences in, and thoughts about, India.

Edwin John Beer - Geologist and mineralogist; c1899-1908 worked as an analytical chemist engaged in perfecting the viscose material later known as rayon; took post in Bombay analysing manganese ores and assaying gold 1908; employed by the General Prospecting Syndicate, headed by Charles Jambon, to prospect for minerals in India c1909-14; searching for suitable sites for production of Portland Cement in India c1914-20.

Sound recording currently unavailable at SOAS Library due to preservation reasons. Researchers can access a copy of this audio recording at the British Library Listening & Viewing Service. For more details see www.bl.uk/listening or contact listening@bl.uk / 020 7412 7418.

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Copyright held by British Library

Recorded as part of the ’Memories of the British in India’ project by India Office Library & Records [subsequently the Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library]. This recording was previously held at SOAS Library as part of the 'British in India Oral Archive Project' collection [Reference OA2], removed from this collection in August 2014 to reflect the recording’s alternative provenance as part of the ‘Memories of the British in India’ project.

Original sound recording of interview available at British Library Listening & Viewing Service [Reference: C63/151-155]