Henry Doetsch

Who is Henry Doetsch?

Henry Doetsch was a German born industrialist who lived in London.

He was born Heinrich Moritz Doetsch the 31 January 1839 at the »Burghof«, the 17th century manor of his family in Kärlich. Because of a lung weakness, Henry Doetsch went as a young man of 23 years to Sevilla in Spain, where he entered with the help of his cousin, Moritz Willmar-Doetsch from Frankfurt/Main, as volunteer a British company. A few years later he was founder of the »Firma Sundheim y Doetsch« in Huelva with his compagnon Guillermo Sundheim. In 1873 Doetsch was the director of the Rio Tinto Company Limited, in London and Huelva. Together with Hugh Matheson, chairman of the Rio Tinto Company, and Guillermo Sundheim he built up a railway line in Andalucia: The »Compañía del Ferrocarril de Zafra a Huelva«. Doetsch held a patent in Canada for an extraction process to remove copper from its ores, registered in September 1879, so he was involved in mining and production of copper in Río Tinto by the so-called »Doetsch process«. But the use of Teladas poisoned the air and many residents became ill or died. Henry Doetsch fell out with Hugh Matheson on the issue of supply of the Miners.