Rest In Peace Arthur Ernest Thomas
Arthur Ernest Thomas was born on the 9th of April 1937 in Wallasey, England. He passed away at the age of 88 on the 25th of September. Arthur was six years old when he first became fascinated with rocks and minerals. Whilst walking along a stony beach in North Wales with his father. He began looking at the stones more closely and began asking his father questions. His father named a few of them and Arthur took those home as the beginning of his collection. He was hooked, and soon he began cycling to collect mineral specimens from the mines of the Peak District, Northumberland, Cornwall and the Lead Hills of Scotland.
Arthur’s passion for stones followed him to Africa where he studied to become a gemmologist and became a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and later, on a trip to the GIA headquarters in Carlsbad (CA), he achieved the Graduate Gemologist (GG). In 1962 Arthur founded the Luanshya Gem and Mineral Society in Northern Rhodesia. The mine had granted the society the use of an old club house and with the help of the mine workshops they were soon equipped to tumble, cab and facet gems. The society field trips were often productive and always adventurous. On one of these outings members of the society found an outcrop of biotite mica and extracted a quantity of deep green crystals. They were gemmy emeralds. These Kafubu stones carried a trace of iron which gave them a higher specific gravity and refractive indices. These properties differing slightly from those of Colombian emerald resulted in it taking several months for Arthur to convince the dealers overseas
that we were mining emeralds in Zambia. This first deposit situated on the banks of the Miku stream is now known as the Miku or Old Mine. Arthur then moved south to Rhodesia where he ran a jewellery manufacturing operation until in 1975 he was appointed as the director of education by the jewellery council of South Africa. He represented South Africa at the international Diamond Education Conference in Lausanne by De Beers in 1976. Arthur established his own business Arthur Thomas Gems where he provided gems and gemmological services to the trade and public for 47 years. Arthur loved to share his passion for gems, and he mentored and taught many aspiring gemmologists and gem enthusiasts. If you were ever lucky enough to have spent some time in his office you would know how he loved to tell stories from his event filled life.
Arthur will be dearly missed by all his friends and family.