Hubert Shirley-Smith Explained

Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith
Nationality:British
Birth Date:13 October 1901
Birth Place:London, UK
Death Place:London, UK
Discipline:Civil
Institutions:Institution of Civil Engineers (president),
Imperial College, London (Fellow)
Significant Projects:Howrah Bridge, Forth Road Bridge

Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith, CBE, BSc, MICE (13 October 1901  - 10 February 1981) was a British civil engineer.[1]

Shirley-Smith is perhaps most famous for helping to design the Howrah Bridge in Calcutta for the Indian Public Works Department in 1943.[2] He also served in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, an unpaid, volunteer Territorial Army unit which provides engineering expertise to the British Army and was gazetted as a major of that corps on 6 October 1953 In 1962 he worked as site agent for the ADC bridge company during construction of the Forth Road Bridge.[3]

He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from November 1967 to November 1968, during the 150th anniversary of that institution, and was made a Fellow of Imperial College, London in 1966[4] [5] Shirley-Smith was a consulting engineer and worked for W.V. Zinn & Associates of London from 1969 to 1978.[6] During 1968 Shirley-Smith was president of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering and helped to arrange the first joint-conferences of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers.[4]

Shirley-Smith was honoured with an appointment as a Knight Bachelor on 1 January 1969 in the Queen's New Year Honours, being knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 7 March 1969. He was appointed a first class engineer member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers in 1969.[7] Shirley-Smith was also an author and wrote The World's Great Bridges and the Encyclopædia Britannica article on bridges.[6] In 1971 he lived in Orpington in Kent.[7] Shirley-Smith died on 10 February 1981.[1]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/sh.htm Entry in New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
  2. Book: Banister , Fletcher . Banister Fletcher . Dan Cruickshank . Dan Cruickshank . Andrew Saint . Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture . Architectural Press . 1996 . 1625 . 0-7506-2267-9.
  3. https://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/newcanmore.newcandig_p_coll_details?p_arcnumlink=957648 RCAHMS archive
  4. Book: Watson , Garth . The Civils . Thomas Telford . 1988 . 254 . 0-7277-0392-7.
  5. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/college/aboutimperial/imperial_people/fellows Imperial College list of fellows
  6. http://www.britannica.com/oscar/author?id=2711 Encyclopædia Britannica author entry
  7. Book: Watson , Garth . The Smeatonians: The Society of Civil Engineers . Thomas Telford Ltd . 1989 . 140 . 0-7277-1526-7.