Background
Mitchell was born in Street Kilda, Victoria, the oldest of eight siblings. His father, James Mitchell, was a commercial traveller and amateur mineralogist.
Mitchell was born in Street Kilda, Victoria, the oldest of eight siblings. His father, James Mitchell, was a commercial traveller and amateur mineralogist.
He was educated at Armadale State School. Mitchell studied in the evenings at the Working Men"s College of Melbourne. He gained a certificate in geology in 1911 and subsequently worked for the Department of Metallurgical Geology and Mineralogy.
From 1898 he was employed as a metallurgist and industrial chemist in a Footscray smelting works. He established his own businesses, first as a gold assayer, then as South. R. Mitchell & Company, which was a refiner of precious metals from the 1920s, then Mitchell"s Abrasives in 1930 to manufacture sandpaper. Mitchell accumulated major collections of rocks, minerals and Aboriginal artefacts and was heavily involved in the activities of field naturalists’ clubs.
He wrote numerous articles and a book about his interests.