Sir Harold John Boyer Harding (6 January 1900 – 27 March 1986) was a British civil engineer. Harding was educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

and the

City and Guilds College The Faculty of Engineering is the engineering school of Imperial College London, and one of the three main faculties the college. It was formed in 2001 from the former City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines—two of the three ori ...

(part of

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

), interrupting his studies 1918–19 with a one-year period spent as a

cadet A cadet is an officer trainee or candidate. The term is frequently used to refer to those training to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. Its meaning may vary between countries which can include youths in ...

in the

Officers' Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

. Following graduation Harding worked for

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generati ...

where he specialised in tunnelling work for

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

including the reconstruction of

Piccadilly Circus tube station Piccadilly Circus is a London Underground station located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner. Located in Travel-card Zone 1, the station is on the Piccadilly line between Green Park and Leicester Squa ...

and the expansion of the Central line. In the 1930s he and Mowlem were instrumental in introducing geotechnical processes to the UK. Upon the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Harding was placed in charge of defence and emergency repair of underground services in London. He built pre-cast concrete petrol barges and eight of the Mulberry Harbour segments used in the

Normandy Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. He was also a founding director of Soil Mechanics Ltd, a subsidiary of Mowlem dedicated to work in

geotechnics Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics for the solution of its respective engineering problems. It als ...

. After the war Harding was involved with investigations into the feasibility of construction of a

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

and sat on the tribunal investigating the

Aberfan disaster The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. Heavy rain led t ...

of 1966. Harding was elected president of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

, was the founding chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, fellow of the

City and Guilds of London Institute The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

and fellow of Imperial College. He was also a founder fellow of the

Fellowship of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

and

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of three separate academic institutions: Westminster Technical College. Northampton Engineering College, and Imperial College. He received a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in 1968.

Early life

Harding was born in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

, London to Arthur Boyer Harding and his wife Helen Clinton Lowe, daughter of William Lowe, the vicar of Bunbury. His father died in 1902 and the family spent the next four years in South Africa with his mother's sister and her husband. Harold and his brother were educated at their uncle's expense at

, Horsham and Harold entered the

(a part of

) in 1917. He served as a full-time

in 1918 before resuming his studies in 1919. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1922.

Work with Mowlem

Upon graduation Harding joined John Mowlem & Co., an engineering contractor, where he worked on the development of the

network including the reconstruction of the

from 1926 to 1929. In 1927 he married Sophie Helen Blair Leighton, an artist with whom he had constructed a model of the Piccadilly works that later found its way to the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and is now in the

London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...

. Sophie was the daughter of the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

inspired painter

Edmund Leighton Edmund Blair Leighton (21 September 18521 September 1922) was an English painter of historical genre scenes, specialising in Regency and medieval subjects. His art is associated with the pre-Raphaelite movement of the mid-to-late nineteenth an ...

. The Hardings had a daughter and two sons. During this period Harding was the first to employ the technique of

dewatering Dewatering is the removal of water from a location. This may be done by wet classification, centrifugation, filtration, or similar solid-liquid separation processes, such as removal of residual liquid from a filter cake by a filter press as part ...

of soil in the UK and the first to use the Joosten process of stabilisation by two part chemical injection.British Tunnelling Society 2000 Harold Harding Lecture
In 1931 Harding worked on the construction of the new

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

plant at

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

. Major

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

problems had to be overcome during the works as the plant was sited on the spot where

Cornelius Vermuyden Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, ...

had closed a breach in the Thames in 1621–22. From this experience Harding developed an interest in chemical consolidation techniques and was a pioneer in their use. He also developed a belief in the value of the use of compressed air in difficult ground. He was in charge of the 1936–39 extension of the London Underground's Central line from

Bow Road tube station Bow Road is a London Underground station located on Bow Road in Bow, London, England. It is on the District and Hammersmith & City lines. The station is interlinked as an out of station interchange (OSI) with Bow Church station on the Docklan ...

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...

World War Two

Following the outbreak of the

Harding was placed in charge of defence and emergency repair of underground services in London. In 1942 he co-founded Soil Mechanics Ltd, a subsidiary of Mowlem which was the first construction company concerned with

. The other founding directors were

Rudolph Glossop Rudolph Glossop (17 February 1902 – 1 March 1993) was a British mining and civil engineer and one of the founders of Geotechnical Engineering in the UK.Ronald E. Williams, "Rudolph Glossop: and the Rise of Geotechnology", Whittles, 201accessed ...

and Hugh Golder, who later founded

Golder Associates Golder Associates Inc., branded as just Golder, is an international company that provides consulting, design, and construction services in earth, environment, and related areas of energy. The company has 7,000 employees in offices in Africa, As ...

. From 1943 to 1944 Harding was involved with the pre-casting of concrete and built several petrol barges and eight of the Mulberry Harbour segments which were used in the

Post-war

After the war Harding was increasingly involved with the management of Soil Mechanics Ltd and served as a director of it from 1949 to 1955 and also as a director of Mowlem from 1950 to 1956. Following this he worked independently as a consultant and arbitrator in the UK and abroad until 1978. He was the UK consultant with René Malcor his colleague and French counterpart from 1958 to 1970 of the

study group investigations into the feasibility of a Channel Tunnel, which eventually resulted in the tunnel's construction in 1988–94. From 1966 to 1967 Harding was also a member of the

tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single ...

, chaired by Lord Justice

Edmund Davies Herbert Edmund Edmund-Davies, Baron Edmund-Davies, PC (15 July 1906 – 26 December 1992) was a British judge. Early life and career Born Herbert Edmund Davies at Mountain Ash ( cy, Aberpennar), Glamorgan (now in Rhondda Cynon Taf), Wales, h ...

, which investigated the rotational slip of a

slag heap A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quant ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

which caused 144 deaths. Harding died at Topsham, Devon on 27 March 1986, having been lobbying for a twin-bore tunnel solution for the Channel Tunnel up to the announcement of its go-ahead, just weeks before his death.

Institutions and awards

Harding served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers from November 1963 to November 1964. He was also the founding chairman of the British Tunnelling Society from 1971 to 1973 and was a founder fellow of the

in 1976. Harding was elected a fellow of the

in 1952 and of Imperial College in 1968. He also received a

on 13 February 1968 and was awarded an honorary

Doctor of Sciences Doctor of Sciences ( rus, доктор наук, p=ˈdoktər nɐˈuk, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; uk, доктор наук; bg, доктор на науките; be, доктар навук) is a higher doctoral degree in the Russi ...

degree from

City University London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

in 1970. Harding served as a

of three separate academic institutions, Westminster Technical College from 1948 to 1953; Northampton Engineering College from 1950 to 1953, and Imperial College from 1955 to 1975.

Legacy

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

lists some of Harding's professional papers dated 1926–1986 which relate to Piccadilly Circus and the

.National Archives holdings
/ref> They form part of a donation made by him to the University of Exeter Engineering Department in the early 1980s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Harold British civil engineers Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1900 births 1986 deaths People from Wandsworth Knights Bachelor Alumni of Imperial College London Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering People educated at Christ's Hospital