William Wylie Grierson CBE (9 December 1863 – 14 March 1935) was a British civil engineer. [1]
Grierson was born to James Grierson (Manager of the Great Western Railway) and Margaret Emily Grierson and was educated at Rugby School. William married Aleen Isabel Bell on 14 September 1927 at St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. [1]
Grierson followed in his father's footsteps as engineer in chief to the Great Western Railway between 1904 and 1923, following which he established an engineering consultancy firm. [1] He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 New Year Honours for his efforts during the First World War. [2] [3]
He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1929 to 1930. [4] He also served in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps, a Territorial Army unit whose members volunteer advice to the army on engineering matters. [1] [5]
He died suddenly in San Remo, Italy on 14 March 1935 after an operation. [1]
Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, was a British Army officer. He saw active service in the Second Boer War on the staff of Lord Kitchener. He saw action again in the First World War as Commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915, leading the landings on the peninsula and then the evacuation later in the year, before becoming commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army on the Western Front during the closing stages of the war. He went on to be general officer commanding the Northern Army in India in 1920 and Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1925.
Field Marshal Sir Archibald Armar Montgomery-Massingberd,, known as Archibald Armar Montgomery until October 1926, was a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) from 1933 to 1936. He served in the Second Boer War and in the First World War, and later was the driving force behind the formation of a permanent "Mobile Division", the fore-runner of the 1st Armoured Division.
Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took command of the Second Army in May 1915 and in June 1917 won an overwhelming victory over the German Army at the Battle of Messines, which started with the simultaneous explosion of a series of mines placed by the Royal Engineers' tunnelling companies beneath German lines, which created 19 large craters and was described as the loudest explosion in human history. He later served as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine and then as Governor of Malta before becoming High Commissioner of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1925 and retiring in 1928.
Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell held the post of chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the 1923 Grouping and then the post of CME of the Southern Railway in England until 1937. He had previously worked his way up through positions in other railways in Ireland, England and India.
Brigadier-General Sir Alexander Gibb was a Scottish civil engineer. After serving as Civil Engineer-in-Chief to the Admiralty and Director-General of Civil Engineering at the Ministry of Transport, he established the engineering consultancy firm Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners.
William James Uglow Woolcock was a Liberal Party politician in England.
Sir Brodie Haldane Henderson, KCMG, CB was a British civil engineer. Henderson was primarily a railway engineer who worked for many railroad corporations across South America, Australasia and Africa. He was the consultant for the Dona Ana Bridge which, when it was built in 1935, was the longest railway bridge in the world with a length of 2.24 miles (3.60 km). He volunteered for service with the Royal Engineers at the outbreak of World War I and was put in charge of railway lines used to tranposrt Allied troops and supplies. In this capacity he held the rank of a Brigadier-General of the British Army and his success in this role resulted in him being decorated by the British, French and Belgian governments.
Sir Robert Meredydd Wynne-Edwards CBE, DSO, MC and bar was a British civil engineer and army officer. Wynne-Edwards was born in Cheltenham and educated at Giggleswick School and Leeds Grammar School before being commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers at the outbreak of the First World War. He served on the Western Front in France where he received a Mention in Despatches, Distinguished Service Order and a Military Cross and bar for his gallantry and leadership. Following the war he studied engineering at Christ Church, Oxford from which he graduated with second class honours in 1921.
Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith, CBE, BSc, MICE was a British civil engineer.
Vernon Alec Murray Robertson, CBE, MC and bar was a British civil engineer in the railway sector. During the First World War he served with the Royal Engineers with distinction, earning the Military Cross twice. Robertson later worked for a number of railway companies before becoming Chief Civil Engineer to the London Passenger Transport Board, Southern Railway and the Southern Region of British Railways. During and after the Second World War he returned to the army and served with, and commanded, the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. Robertson served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1949–50.
Colonel Sir Jonathan Roberts Davidson was a British civil engineer and army officer. Davidson pursued a professional career as an engineer which resulted in him being elected president of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. He also served as an officer in the Territorial Force where he saw combat as a battalion commander in the First World War with the Liverpool Scottish and was twice wounded in action.
Sir William "Kirby" Laing was a British civil engineer.
Sir Charles Langbridge Morgan CBE was a British civil engineer. A railway engineer, he spent his early career on several railway construction projects before joining the Great Eastern Railway where his responsibilities included construction of Liverpool Street station. Morgan became chief engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1896 and directed improvements to London Victoria station and Grosvenor Bridge. During the First World War Morgan was a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Engineers, carrying out "special engineering duties" in Italy and France for the War Office. He later served as the army's deputy director of railways, on the advisory expert committee to the Ministry of Munitions and on the Disposal Board of the Disposal and Liquidation Commission.
Sir Allan Stephen Quartermaine, was a British civil engineer. He started his career in the Hertfordshire county surveyor's office and served in the Royal Engineers during the First World War, constructing railways in the Middle East and being awarded the Military Cross. After the war he continued to work for local authorities before joining the Great Western Railway (GWR), where he became chief engineer by 1940. During the Second World War he served as Director-General of Aircraft Production Factories before returning to the GWR to construct military railway facilities. After the war he refused a position on the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission as he disagreed with nationalisation of the railways. Despite this he transferred to become chief engineer of the Western Region of British Railways in 1948 and later served as an adviser to British Rail on modernisation. Quartermaine served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1951–52 and was knighted in 1956.
Henry Francis Cronin CBE, MC, BSc (Eng) (1894–1977) was a British civil engineer and army officer. He served in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Engineers during the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross for constructing defensive works and taking part in assaults under heavy fire. Cronin was appointed chief engineer of London's Metropolitan Water Board in 1939 and held that position until 1959. During the London Blitz he worked hard to maintain water supplies for fire fighting.
David Mowat Watson (1891–1972) was a British civil engineer.
Harold John Frederick Gourley was a British civil engineer.
Lieutenant Colonel William Earle Molesworth was a British First World War flying ace credited with eighteen aerial victories.
Ian MacDonald Campbell, CVO, FREng, FICE, FCIT was a British civil engineer. He served as chief executive of the British Railways Board (1978–80) and chairman of the Scottish Board of British Railways (1983–88).
Major-General Charles Scott Napier, was a British Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars. During the latter he was Chief of Movements and Transportation at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during the campaign in north-west Europe.