Nominations for the Douglas Hay Medal are judged by the editors of the Transactions journals.

2022
Not awarded

2021
Value chain excellence: Managing variability to stabilise and exploit the mine value chain
Martyn L Bloss, Geoff W Capes, Russell Seib,
Liam V Alford, Jack L Light, Ilnur Minniakhmetov & Chris Nielsen

2018
Characterisation of burst-prone grounds at Vale’s Creighton Mine
P Morissette, J Hadjigeorgiou & A Punkkinen

2017
Three-dimensional analysis of complex anisotropic slope instability at MMG’s Century Mine
D. P. Sainsbury, B. L. Sainsbury & E. Sweeney

2016
Discrete fracture network modelling to quantify rock mass pre-conditioning at the El Teniente Mine, Chile
A. Brzovic, S. Rogers, G. Webb, J. P. Hurtado, N. Marin, P. Schachter, J. Alvarez & K. Baraona 

2015
Mining of orebodies under shear loading Part 2: Failure modes and mechanisms
F. T. Suorineni, J. J. Mgumbwa, & P. K. Kaiser, D. Thibodeau

2014
Modelling fracturing, disturbed and interaction zones around fully confined detonation charges
I Onederra, A Catalan & G Chitombo

2013
Progress and challenges in some areas of deep mining
E.T. Brown

2012
Mining of oreobodies under shear loading Part 1: Case histories
Dr F.T Suorineni et al 

2011
Monitoring open stope caving at Goldex Mine
M R Hudyma, P Frenette & I Leslie

2010
Integrated mining, processing and waste disposal systems for reduced energy and operating costs at Xstrata Nickel’s Sudbury Operations
A S Bamber, B Klein, R C Pakalnis & M J Scoble

2008
A parametric study of a longwall district climate prediction and planning model
I S Lowndes, Z Y Yang, S W Kingman, S A Silvester & M A Tucket for their paper

2007
Ground response curves for longwall support assessment
K Reed & Mr T P Medhurst

2006
The Swebrec function: linking fragmentation by blasting and crushing
F Ouchterlony

2004
Boulby mine shaft lining design: second restoration
A Williams & F A Auld

 

 

 

Professor Douglas Hay, Chief Mining Engineer to the National Coal Board, died at his home in Woking on the morning of Thursday, 24th February, 1949, within three days of his 61st birthday, after a partial recovery from an operation which had rendered him inactive since the previous July.

His passing is a great blow to the Mining Industry he has throughout served so faithfully and so well, a loss to his wide circle of friends, an irreparable misfortune to his widow Beatrice, and those proviledges to be on terms of closest intimacy.

His last days were coloured by the great disappointment that he had been prevented from completing the task he had set himself on his appointment as the first Chief Mining Engineer to the National Coad Board but with some satisfaction in knowing that he has well and truly laid solid foundations for the ultimate success of the greatest industrial enterprise in this country.

Never the possessor of robust health, his work with a Field Battery at Passchendaele as a Major in the RFA earned for him the award of the Military Cross but also aggravated his susceptibility to sciatica. This painful malady served to increase his sympathy for others and consideration for all those whose welfare was within his care.

A catalogue of his various honours, awards and appointments would be lengthy and show the diversity of his interests and adequacy of purpose. His strong sense of realism gave fertility and achievement and clothed the bare bones of academic theory so that the whole course of his life seemed to have been directed to the high office he was finally to occupy.

He was the elder son of Mr William Hay, a mining engineer of outstanding repute in the Midlands. Born in 1888 Douglas Hay was educated at Retford Grammar School and Nottingham University. After an early training under Dr J H W Laverick at Tinsley Park Colliery, Sheffield, he gained his BSc in 1909 at the age of 20, and his becoming James Forrest Medallist and Miller Prizeman of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In this year he joined The Institution of Mining Engineers and also His Majesty's Inspectorate of Mines, and in 1927 he became holder of the Manby Premium.

To these academic qualifications must be added numerous other awards: one gave him particular pleasure in that as author of the first Cadman Memorial Lecture of the Royal Society of Arts, the Medal of that Society was resented to him in 1947 by Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth, the President.

Always interested in the highly technical aspects of the great industry to which he gave his life's work and thoughts, on returning from service with the RFA he first rejoined the Inspectorate and then in 1922 became Professor of Mining at Sheffield University. This post he filled to the great enhancement of the prestige of that Department and to the material profit of those students who were privileged to be instructed by him.

In 1925 he joined his father at Messrs Newton Chambers & Co Ltd, of Sheffield, where he remained until 1939, then accepting the position of Managing Director of the Barrow Barnsley Main Collieries and of the Barnsley District Coking Company.

In September 1946 he was appointed Chief Mining Engineer to the National Coal Board.

Douglas Hay was particularly proud of his association with The Institution of Mining Engineers, of which he was President from 1945 to 1948, and of his more intimate association with The Midland Institute of Mining Engineers, of which he was President from 1934-1936, a member of Council from 1923 to 1929, and of the Yorkshire Advisory Committee brought him world renown as an authority on this subject.

Professor Hay rendered valuable services to the Institution and to the profession in many ways. His wide experience, coupled with his ability and temperament, ideally fitted him to undertake the many and intricate problems involved in the reorganisation of the Industry at a time of national emergency. The responsibilities of his office called for the full use of all his scholarly and practical qualities when planning in the grand scale had to go hand with the limitations on man-power and equipment and other problems which had not previously been associated as considerations in the efficient working of the mines. Men had to be encouraged to give their best, be re0educated, led and directed whilst old tools were scrapped, new ones designed and speedily provided, and old pits re-planned and others rapidly developed.

In this welter of urgent and practical problems the members of the Institution to which he had devoted so much pf his time, gifts, energy, and affection greatly benefited from the continuous thought he gave to one of his major interests - that of raising the standard and professional status of the Mining Engineer.

From the early days of his managerial responsibilities he had set himself this task, to which end he strove to improve the method of education and training of all new entrants to the Industry. In 1928 he was a member of the Holland Committee on the Qualifications of Colliery Officials, later Chairman of the Committee of The Institution of Mining Engineers on Qualification and Training for Mining Engineers whose aim it was to set up a higher standard of technical knowledge by the inauguration of Associate Membership Examinations. His driving force was such that the latter goal was achieved in 1946.

Few men have rendered services to the Institute of such a lasting nature and of such vital importance. 

He was the author of many technical papers and a keen constructive participator in the discussion arising out of contributions by other authors.

Douglas Hay was a man of keen intellect which swiftly grasped the essentials of a problem, a lucid speaker in exposition, and a wise judge in decision.

Members will join with his friends in grateful thanks for having known a colleague of such outstanding ability, a man of so high integrity, and a friend of such kindliness.

Major B E Webster OBE MC

Transactions - The Instituteion of Mining Engineers, Vol. 109, p 193-194