Mr Leon Lubett (1932, Mineral Technology 1933)

Provided by Mr Roland Lubett

Lef Lubett died peacefully on 10 October at the age of 96, after a long and distinguished life in mining, engineering, metal trading and arbitration in the UK and many other countries, in war and peacetime. I reproduce the following brief obituary from his funeral, in the hope that it can fill out the bare facts of Lefs life:

The youngest of six children, Lef grew up in Brighton in a loving Jewish family. He was an all-round top student, but with uninspired and lazy teachers, was not stretched to his full potential for Higher Certificate. However a timely visit from his brother David, and a look at the courses offered by Imperial College's Royal School of Mines, helped him decide on a career in mining geology.

With the help of a loan from the Education Aid Fund, Lef studied for three years at the RSM, and then worked as a mining engineer in South Africa, Canada and India, at a time when the world was struggling with economic depression and the fast-growing threat of war.

The outbreak of the War in the Pacific saw Lef at work in the Kolar Gold Fields in Bangalore, India. He would look back at his time on the KGF as "salad days": challenging work, with a sumptuous lifestyle, fitting not always easily into a colonial social milieu with its conventions and distinctions.

Along with many of the other expatriate staff on the Gold Fields, Lef volunteered for army service, and after a period of training at Poona, was sent to Burma with the Bombay Sappers and Miners.

During the retreat through Burma in 1942, Lef was shipped out with severe malaria. After convalescing, he was sent to Chitral, in the North West Frontier region of India. During construction work on a bridge over the Kunar river gorge, he was thrown off his horse, breaking his arm, but the three broken vertebrae in his neck were not diagnosed till many weeks later.

Demobbed in 1946, Lef returned to work at the KGF. In 1947 he returned to England, and through his many contacts, rapidly established a long-term profession in the non-ferrous metal business. After a period of work with Ayrton Metals, in 1958 he founded Ayrton and Partners, which prospered handsomely, though by his own admission Lef never had a real flair for the trading side of the business.

In the 1960s Lef took legal studies and later qualified as an arbitrator, a role at which he excelled and that he found highly satisfying. He had a lasting influence on the legal side of the metal trade, and he became an authority in the drafting of rules and contracts for the trade. After Ayrton and Partners was taken over by Wogen pIc, Lef remained with Wogen as a director and "elder statesman", frequently consulted for advice on contracts and legal issues.

Lef was a man of many interests and gifts. His youth was athletic, marked by a distinguished club rugby career and a deep love of the mountains. He was a keen golfer for over 60 years, and a key figure in the London Metal Exchange Golf Association.

Lef possessed considerable gifts of art, design and drawing, which were never fully developed. They found later expression in his hobbies of hand printing and calligraphy.

Lef was always possessed of an active and enquiring mind, taking Open University studies until he was well over 90. He maintained a deep interest in the poetry and imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures. His knowledge spanned philosophy, comparative religions, jurisprudence, history, economics and ecology. In common with many whose intellectual home was in the liberal humanist tradition, with its ideals and hopes for humanity, he found himself growing increasingly disillusioned by the rise of globalisation, religious fundamentalism, and ecological deterioration.

While on leave in England in 1947, he met and married Denise Ullmann. In 1984 he married Charlotte Green, who pre-deceased him. He leaves a son Roland and three grand-daughters.