William Gordon Harris

William Harris
Nationality	British
Engineering career
Engineering discipline	Civil
Institution memberships	Institution of Civil Engineers (president)

Sir William Gordon Harris KBE CB (10 June 1912 – 20 February 2005) was a British civil engineer.

Biography

The docks at Faslane

Harris was born in Liverpool on 10 June 1912. He studied the Mechanical Sciences Tripos at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Harris worked for the London Midland and Scottish Railway as an engineer from 1932 until 1935 when he transferred to the Irrigation Department of Sudan. He returned from Sudan in 1937 to work in the Civil Engineer's Department of the Admiralty, the start of a 26-year association with that department. Harris married Margaret Harvie in 1938, he would have three sons, one daughter and sixteen grandchildren with her. Harris received several promotions during his time with the Admiralty, becoming Assistant Civil Engineer in Chief in 1950, Deputy Civil Engineer in Chief in 1955 and Civil Engineer in Chief in 1959. Harris gained a Commonwealth Fund of New York Scholarship in 1950 which allowed him to spend two years with the US Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks. In 1960 he became the Director-General of Navy Works at the Admiralty, a post he would hold until the reorganisation which followed the merger of the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army administrations into the Ministry of Defence in 1963. During his time with the Admiralty Harris saw the last large gunnery ships go out of service to be replaced with submarines and aircraft carriers. This change of fleet composition required a revolution in dockyard facilities, for which he was responsible, especially those at Faslane, the submarine base.

In the 1963 Queen's Birthday Honours Harris was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and became Director-General of Works at the Ministry of Public Building and Works. From 1965 Harris was the Director-General of Highways at the Ministry of Transport (later the Department of the Environment). During this time he was responsible for all design, construction and maintenance of roads in England. Harris's tenure as Director-General saw the construction of 650 miles of motorways and an expenditure of £2.2 billion on new road construction. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours. Harris was involved with the Permanent Association of Navigation Congresses from 1969 until 1985 and from 1970 to 1971 was the UK's chief delegate to the Permanent Association of Roads Congresses. Harris was a vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1971 to 1974 and president from November 1974 to November 1975. In 1973 Harris left the Department of the Environment and became a partner at Peter Fraenkel & Partners, a position he held for the next five years.

From 1976 to 1979 Harris was chairman of the Construction Industry Manpower Board and from 1978 to 1987 was the chairman of the B&CE Holiday Management Company and Benefit Trust Company, a provider of benefits, holiday pay and pensions to the construction industry. Harris was the deputy chairman of the board of the Port of Dover for 1980 to 1982, having been a member of the board since 1959. In 1984 He was elected president of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. In 1985 he received the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award from the US Army Corps of Engineers in recognition of his work to secure an international agreement upon the disposal of dredged material. His wife, Margaret, died in 1991 and in 1992 he married Rachel Bishop. Harris died at East Carlton, Northamptonshire on 20 February 2005.

References

• The Times Obituaries – Sir William Harris

Professional and academic associations
Preceded by Kirby Laing	President of the Institution of Civil Engineers November 1974 – November 1975	Succeeded by Norman Rowntree