Hubert Shirley-Smith

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

Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith
Hubert Shirley-Smith
Born	13 October 1901 London, UK
Died	10 February 1981(1981-02-10) (aged 79) London, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Engineer
Engineering career
Discipline	Civil
Institutions	Institution of Civil Engineers (president), Imperial College, London (Fellow)
Projects	Howrah Bridge, Forth Road Bridge

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]