Of MICE and Men

I found a somebody! I confess I do have a soft spot for MICE (Members of the Institution of Civil Engineers) so I Googled this one just in case he was of any particular interest. It turns out he is:-

“Arthur Walmisley began his career as a civil engineer as pupil to R.M. Ordish where he worked as a draughtsman on drawings for the roofs of the Albert Hall and St Pancras Station. This involved complex design calculations and the detailing of structural ironwork. He went on to work with a number of architects and engineers, including John Johnson, architect, for whom he executed drawings of the rebuilding of Alexandra Palace.
In 1878 he set up his own practice as a civil engineer and acquired a reputation as an expert in iron roof structures with the National Agricultural Hall in Olympia and the Carlisle Market Hall. His great book on the subject remains a major source of information on iron roofs. He felt that it was a subject much less well studied than that of iron bridges and set out "to provide a record of the style of design adopted in some of the best known roofs that have been erected".
These include the roofs of the Albert Hall, Alexandra Palace and the Aquarium Westminster together with some major London railway stations, such as Broad Street, Cannon Street, King’s Cross, London Bridge, Liverpool Street, St Pancras and Victoria, as well as roofs in Bristol, Carlisle, Dublin, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester and the great curving roof of York station.”

Not only has the book "Iron Roofs. Examples of Design" (1881) maintained its status as an authority on the subject, but so has his later book "Land Surveying and Levelling" (1900), which is still familiar to land surveyors today, including my 32-year-old colleague.

And in 1906 he collaborated with JF Heather on "A Treatise on Mathematical Instruments; their Construction, Adjustment, Testing, and Use Concisely Explained". Copies of which are currently to be found in the libraries of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the University of Oxford as well as four other notable library locations.