“Swan was a big Scotchman, rather quiet and not a bad kind of chap” (L.C. Meredith, quoted from R.H. Wood, ‘Llewellyn Cambria Meredith 1866-1942’, in Heritage of Zimbabwe 16 (1997), pp. 55-66)
Tuesday, 18 December 1883: “Met Mr. Swan who more than fulfilled our warmest hopes.” (Travel Chronicles of Mabel Bent, Vol. 1 (p. 21; Oxford, 2006), writes Mabel Bent after the couple met Swan when he was a mining engineer on the Cycladic island of Antiparos in 1883. They hit it off immediately, and later (in 1891) he was invited to join the Bents for their investigations at Great Zimbabwe, where he undertook surveying duties, contributing a chapter to Bent’s monograph on the remains: The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892). A decade later he was working for various mining companies on the Malay Peninsula, only to die of complications following liver surgery in Kuala Lumpur in 1904 (c. 45 years, the same age as Bent on his death coincidentally). He appears to have been the General Manager of the Malaysian Company Ltd. at the time of his death.
It appears that Swan was mining in the Cyclades on behalf of his father’s company, David Swan & Co., Glasgow, perhaps in conjunction with a French mining concern in Greece from the early 1880s, it was his first major responsibility (his brother John joining him) after a period of further training in Spain. By 1882 he had travelled enough in the region to compile a minerological report which appeared in The Glasgow Herald (Tuesday, November 21, 1882) – we see he has also been appointed ‘Consular Agent’ (he was 25 years old): “Mr Consular Agent Swan, at Antiparos, reports on the minerals in the Cyclades (Greece) as follows:- ‘The Cyclades are more remarkable for the number than value of their mineral deposits, and in nearly all of the islands ores of several of the commoner metals are found. In Macronisi calamine has been found, and from Zea and Thermia I have got samples of galens and carbonate of copper. In Siphnos, famed among the ancients for its production of gold, a concession has lately been granted for mining lead and zinc. Calamine is believed to exist in quantity there, and in a similar manner to that in which it occurs on the mainland at Laurium – viz., at the contact between marble and mica-schist. The large deposits of iron ore (haematite and magnetic oxide) in Ser[i]phos have been worked in open quarries, but operations there have been discontinued for some years. Milo is famed for its millstone and sulphur mines, and traces of copper, and recently also manganese oxide, have been found. In Polykandro, Sikino and Santorin veins of galena and carbonate of copper have been discovered, but I am aware that these ores exist there in workable quantities. From Anaphe I have got samples of asbestos, but of poor quality. Naxos is also well known for its production of emery, which mineral has also been found, but in small quantity, on the coast of Paros. Mining in modern times has been more extensively carried on in Antiparos than in any other of the Cyclades.'”
After leaving Greece in the mid 1880s, the next reference we have for Swan is in a memoire by Florence Caddy, To Siam and Malaya in the Duke of Sutherland’s Yacht ‘Sans Peur’ (London, 1889). Swan is in the Far East, it seems acting as an engineer, surveyor for various railway companies. On Monday, 13 February 1888 he is in Singapore with a friend from Cyprus called Cobham (p.222). The latter knows Sutherland, apparently, and the pair hitch a lift on the Sans Peur – in which Florence Caddy is also a guest: ‘Mr. Cobham, one of Her Majesty’s commissioners in Cyprus, whom the Duke had invited to travel with him, came on board with his friend, Mr. Swan, the engineer who was to accompany his Grace to Siam to consider the country for the proposed railway there’. The book has several references to the engineer, in which he comes over as a dapper, man-about-town, perhaps even flirtatious: ‘We lunched at the Raffles Hotel, where a Malay luncheon had been ordered for us. Mr. Swan, who knew Malayan customs, told us what to choose and how to eat it, and peeled mangosteens for us.'” (p.279) Florence is sorry to leave him behind: ‘Farewell to the Sultan, princes and datos, and to Mr. Swan, who is going to remain behind constructing Malayan railways. We shall miss him much. Friends may come and friends may go, but we go on for ever, we feel, as the Sans Peur weighs her anchor, and “we go on our way, and we see them no more”… The last we have heard of Mr. Swan was by letter, wherein he mentions his cook having been eaten by a tiger.’ (p.263)
It was in the Far East that Swan took and interest in neolithic finds. He donated a collection of stone implements from the Malay Peninsular to the British Museum in the early 1900s, one of which is illustrated below. There note on him reads: “Engineer. Educated Glasgow University. Worked in Spain and Greece, as well as Western Australia, Tasmania, Siam (Thailand), and the Malay Peninsula. Accompanied Royal Geographical Society expeditions to Africa.”
No archive seems to have a likeness of this driven, capable Scotsman and we would like very much to see him, or learn of his final resting place. If you can help, please get in touch.
Obituaries
“Robert Macnair Wilson Swan died at Pahang in the Malaysian Peninsula in January, 1905 [sic]. He was born February 8, 1858, at Maryhill, near Glasgow, Scotland, and, without regular technical education, began work in May, 1876, sampling and assaying ores in various parts of Spain for D. Swan & Co., at which he continued until February, 1878. From September, 1878, to February, 1885, he was engaged in managing Calamine mines in the Island of Antiparos, Greece, for the same concern. From April, 1888, to May, 1894, he was examining mining properties in Mashonaland for the Magar Syndicate. May, 1894, to September, 1896, found him Manager of the Glasgow Mashonaland Syndicate and the Northern Gold Fields of Mashonaland; and from September, 1896, to May, 1897, Manager of the Glasgow Explorers’ Syndicate in Western Australia. During parts of 1897-98 he was reporting on mines in Siam for the Areacan Co., of London, and in 1900, when he joined this Institute, he was Manager of the Malaysian Co., of Bombay, engaged in directing operations at their mine on the Tui, in Pahang, and in exploring mines for them elsewhere in Malaysia and Siam. He was still in the management of this company’s practical affairs at the time of his decease. Mr. Swan, besides his connection with the Institute, which began in 1900, was a member of the Chemical Society, the Geological Society, and the Royal Geographical Society, all of London.” (Bi-monthly bulletin of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1905, pp. 871-2, New York, N.Y. : American Institute of Mining Engineers)
“Swan, R.M.W. [Robert McNair Wilson]: We regret to record the death, which took place on March 26th [sic] last, of Mr. R. M. W. Swan, well known for his share in the earlier investigations of the ruins of Mashonaland. Mr. Swan was born in 1858, and after receiving a technical training in Glasgow University and in the laboratory of Mr. R. Tattock, went out to Spain in 1878 in the capacity of a mining expert. In 1879 he went to Greece, and the next seven years were spent in mining work, principally in Antiparos and neighbouring islands. In addition to his professional employment, he devoted much attention to archæology, publishing several papers on his researches, and sending many specimens to the British Museum. It was during this period that he first made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent, whom he accompanied during their visits to several of the islands, afterwards taking part in the expedition to Mashonaland, carried out by them in 1891, for the examination of the Zimbabwe and other ruins. During this expedition he undertook the cartographic portion of the work, executing for the first time a careful plan of the ruins, besides mapping the country along the routes followed, and fixing the positions of a number of points astronomically. When, after his return to this country, Mr. Bent described the results of his journey before the Society, Mr. Swan added some notes on the geography and meteorology of Mashonaland, and subsequently contributed to the “Proceedings” (May, 1892), a short paper on the orientation of the ruins, showing in a striking way the close connection which existed between the arrangement of the structures and the astronomical phenomena to which, as sun-worshippers, their builders had paid so much attention. The subject was more fully discussed in the section which he contributed to Mr. Bent’s “Ruined Cities of Mashonaland”. The theory which he developed was subjected to some criticism; but on returning to South Africa to continue his investigations, he collected “data”, which, as he claimed, fully bore out his ideas. During this journey, carried out in 1893, he examined various ruins, till then undescribed, besides doing something to improve the mapping of the country along his route, which led inland by way of the Limpopo.
“This visit to South Africa lasted about two years, spent in part in geological and mining work. In 1896 he examined the mining districts of Western Australia and Tasmania, and in 1898 went to Siam with a similar object, leaving again, after a short visit to this country, for the Malay Peninsula, where he was engaged in mining work until his death, which took place at Kuala Lumpur after an operation for abscess of the liver. Here, as in South Africa, he did much careful cartographical and geological work.
“Mr. Swan was an expert linguist, and from his residence in Greece had acquired a great love for the classics. He possessed a large store of knowledge on varied subjects, which he was always anxious to share with others. He was a Fellow of the Geological and Chemical Societies, as well as of our own, which he joined in 1893, having received the Murchison Grant in 1892. “(Royal Society’s Journal, May, 1904)
“Anthropology has… to regret the loss during the past year [March 1904] of the following workers and pioneers in unexplored fields, who, although they were not actually Fellows of the Institute, have done much to further the interests of the science which the Institute represents in the country:- Mr. R. M. W. Swan was well known for his researches in Mashonaland. In 1891 he accompanied Mr. Theodore Bent, and undertook the topographical part of the work, the maps and plans of the ruined cities being due to his researches. Shortly before his death, which took place in Malacca, he contributed to the Institute a paper on Stone Implements from Pahang, which appeared in Man.” (Report of the Council for the Year 1904. (1905). The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 35, 2-5; the paper referred to is: Swan, R. M. W. (1904). 34. Note on Stone Implements from Pahang. Man, 4, 54-56)
Supplement to the Perak Government Gazette, 1st July, 1904, p.1 (originally in “Preliminary Report”, No. 4, Kuala Lumpur, 15th May, 1904): “Pahang has suffered a severe loss in the death of Mr. R.M.W. Swan, the Manager of the Malaysian Company’s property. How far Mr. Swan’s death will affect the gold-mining industry in Pahang may not be realised for some time; meanwhile, the loss of one who had at heart so truly the welfare of the State, of one who in spite of failure worked on confident of ultimate success, will be keenly felt. My acquaintance with Mr. Swan was but of brief duration; yet, although I do not wish to emphasize my own sorrow while knowing that others feel his death as bitterly, I must add that apart from his personal charms, his enthusiasm for geological study was such that the loss of his co-operation will be greatly regretted. Before I left Lipis, it had been arranged that we should at a future date work over certain areas together; and it was on his way to join Mr. Warnford Lock and myself in an expedition to Tui that Mr. Swan was first taken ill. As the pioneer of geological study in Pahang; and as one who, having formed his conclusions from the observation of natural features, did not hesitate to attempt to turn them to account. Mr. Swan will always be remembered by me with respect.” (John Brooke Scrivenor, F.M.S. (1876-1950))
The Straits Echo of Friday, 1 April 1904, also records Swan’s passing: “Kuala Lumpur, 26 Mar. – Mr R. M. W. Swan, F.C.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., General Manager of the Malaysian Company, Ltd., Sepan, Pahang, died here today, the cause of death being abscess of the liver.” [He was 46 years old]
Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1905 (page 3)
“Anthropology has also to regret the loss during the past year of the following workers and pioneers in unexplored fields, who, although they were not actually Fellows of the Institute, have done much to further the interests of the science which the Institute represents in this country :—
“Mr. R. M. W. Swan was well known for his researches in Mashonaland. In 1891, he accompanied Mr. Theodore Bent, and undertook the topographical part of the work, the maps and plans of the ruined cities being due to bis researches. Shortly before his death, which took place in Malacca, he contributed to the Institute a paper on Stone Implements from Pahang, which appeared in Man.”
Select Bibliography
1892: Orientation And Mensuration Of The Temples, in J. Theodore Bent, The Ruined cities of Mashonaland, London, 1892, pp. 141-178
1904: Note on Stone Implements from Pahang, in Man(4): 54-56 (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland).
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