Alan Probert was a mining engineer and author. He was born in 1901 in London, England, and died March 18, 1985, in Laguna Hills, California. His wife, Lillie May Walker Probert, died in 1989. Alan Probert received a B.S. degree with honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 1925. In the same year he went to Nome, Alaska, to work as an engineer for Hammon Consolidated Goldfields. He went on to work in a number of mines and mining camps in California, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho before beginning a 23-year association with the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company, for which he worked in Colorado, Utah, Alaska, and then for thirteen years with the Compañía de Real del Monte y Pachuca in Mexico. He later spent five years (1950-1955) with the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Mexico and Washington, D.C. From 1955-1961 he served as vice-president and general manager of the Compañía Minera de Guatemala, S.A. From 1961 until his retirement, Probert was a consulting engineer, employed exclusively in Latin America, for such firms as the International Nickel Company, Monsanto, and United Fruit Company.
While employed in Mexico, Probert developed an intense interest in Mexican mining history, particularly that of the state of Hidalgo. He researched and collected materials on mining in Mineral del Monte, focusing on the period of early British involvement in the years 1824-1829. His research interests included British technical expertise and mining history. He wrote on diverse subjects, most related to either mining or Mexico. Lillie Probert assisted her husband in his research, and was the author of at least one published article.
From the guide to the Alan & Lillie M. Probert Collection 33036851., 1687-1987, (Benson Latin American Collection, General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin)
