Obituary: Ken Moses

Kenneth Moses, mining engineer, born 29 November 1931, Member Directing Staff NCB Staff College 1971, Chief Mining Engineer North Yorkshire 1974, Director of Planning 1978, Director North Yorkshire 1981, F Eng 1985, Technical Director 1985, Member British Coal Corporation 1986, CBE 1988, Strategy Planning Director 1991, Deputy Chairman of British Coal 1992, married 1949 Mary Price (one son; two daughters), died Nottingham 2 October 1992.

KEN MOSES was one of industry's most incisive and logical thinkers - starting his career as a coalface worker at Bold Colliery, St Helens, he rose to be Deputy Chairman of British Coal and a President of the Institution of Mining Engineers.

Ken Moses was educated at Cowley Boys' Grammar School, St Helens, Lancashire. His potential was recognised when he started work at the Bold Colliery. He completed a full-time mining engineering course and was selected for British Coal's Directed Practical Training Scheme for potential managers.

In 1964 he was appointed Deputy Manager, Bold Colliery, followed by various managerial appointments before becoming General Manager, Sutton Manor Colliery, in 1969.

From colliery management Moses became a staff member at British Coal's Staff Collee in Buckinghamshire for three years. This was followed by appointments as Chief Mining Engineer, North Yorkshire area, in 1974, Deputy Director General, Mining, and Director of Planning and Major Projects in 1978, and Area Director, North Derbyshire, in 1981. In 1985 Moses became Technical Director, in 1991 he was appointed Strategy Planning Director and in 1992 he became Deputy Chairman of British Coal. He was also Chairman of several British Coal subsidiaries and associated companies.

It is typical of Moses that despite the heavy demands of his duties with British Coal he graduated by part-time study at the Nottingham University with the degrees of M Phil and Ph D in Mining Engineering, thereby achieving a lifetime ambition of becoming a university graduate.

Moses was President of the Institution of the Mining Engineering in its Centenary Year in 1988, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the institution in 1989. He was awarded the Lawrence Holland Medal in 1960 and the Douglas Hay Medal in 1982 and was made a Fellow of the Institution of Mining Electrical and Mining Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

A man of energy, judgement and penetrating intelligence, Moses had no time for muddle-headedness, but he had also compassion and great humour. He was equally at home making a technical proposal before a robust panel of his peers, or as an amusing after-dinner speaker. A family man, Ken Moses was always mindful of the needs of others.