Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith
Hubert Shirley-Smith
Born13 October 1901
London, UK
Died10 February 1981(1981-02-10) (aged 79)
London, UK
NationalityBritish
OccupationEngineer
Engineering career
DisciplineCivil
InstitutionsInstitution of Civil Engineers (president),
Imperial College, London (Fellow)
ProjectsHowrah 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[3] In 1962 he worked as site agent for the ADC bridge company during construction of the Forth Road Bridge.[4]

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[5][6] Shirley-Smith was a consulting engineer and worked for W.V. Zinn & Associates of London from 1969 to 1978.[7] 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.[5]: 240 

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.[8][9] He was appointed a first class engineer member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers in 1969.[10] Shirley-Smith was also an author and wrote The World's Great Bridges and the Encyclopædia Britannica article on bridges.[7] In 1971 he lived in Orpington in Kent.[10] Shirley-Smith died on 10 February 1981.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Entry in New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors
  2. ^ Banister, Fletcher; Dan Cruickshank; Andrew Saint (1996). Sir Banister Fletcher's a History of Architecture. Architectural Press. p. 1625. ISBN 0-7506-2267-9.
  3. ^ "No. 40002". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 October 1953. p. 5837.
  4. ^ RCAHMS archive[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ a b Watson, Garth (1988). The Civils. Thomas Telford. p. 254. ISBN 0-7277-0392-7.
  6. ^ Imperial College list of fellows
  7. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica author entry
  8. ^ "No. 44740". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1969. p. 2.
  9. ^ "No. 44804". The London Gazette. 7 March 1969. p. 2538.
  10. ^ a b Watson, Garth (1989). The Smeatonians: The Society of Civil Engineers. Thomas Telford Ltd. p. 140. ISBN 0-7277-1526-7.


Professional and academic associations Preceded byRalph Freeman President of the Institution of Civil Engineers November 1967 – November 1968 Succeeded byJohn Holmes Jellett
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