Sir Robert Elliott-Cooper (29 January 1845 – 16 February 1942) was a British civil engineer. He spent much of his career as a railway engineer with projects in his native Yorkshire, India and West Africa. Elliott-Cooper was members of the committees that developed

British Standards British Standards (BS) are the standards produced by the BSI Group which is incorporated under a royal charter and which is formally designated as the Standards organization#National standards bodies, national standards body (NSB) for the UK. The ...

for steel bridges and

Portland Cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

and also sat on many government committees. He had a long involvement with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Volunteer Force The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...

, serving as an officer in the 1st Yorkshire (West Riding) Artillery Volunteer Corps and later as a technical specialist and colonel he commanded the

Engineer and Railway Staff Corps The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps is a part of the Royal Engineers in the British Army Reserve. It is intended to provide advisers on engineering and logistics to the British Army at a senior level. Following its work creating the NHS Nighting ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served on the War Office Committee of Hutted Camps for which he was rewarded with appointment as

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

Engineering career

Born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Yorkshire, on 26 January 1845, he was the only son of Robert Cooper, a stockbroker, and his wife Louisa Lucretia Elliott, younger sister of General Sir William Henry Elliott. He received an education from

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physically ...

before entering into a

pupillage A pupillage, in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Hong Kong, is the final, vocational stage of training for those wishing to become practising barristers. Pupillage is similar to an apprenticeship, during which bar ...

with the civil engineer John Fraser for whom he acted as

resident engineer In general, a resident engineer is a person who works at or from the clients' side of a project. He or she possess a high degree of technical and social skills. One of the main goals of the designated role is to foster knowledge transfer. The role e ...

on railway construction projects in Yorkshire until November 1874. On 30 May 1874 Elliott-Cooper applied for a patent for "improvements in apparatus for locking railway signals and switches, and for locking railway signals and gates at level crossings", this patent was granted provisional protection on 26 June 1874. Between November 1874 and May 1875 Elliott-Cooper was in India inspecting engineering works. In June 1876 he established his own engineering consultancy in Westminster. One of his positions was as consultant to the Regents Canal and Dock Company. Elliott-Cooper was appointed a tax commissioner for the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

and its liberties on 9 August 1899. Elliott-Cooper became the Crown Agent Engineer for the construction of railways by the government in

British West Africa British West Africa was the collective name for British colonies in West Africa during the colonial period, either in the general geographical sense or the formal colonial administrative entity. British West Africa as a colonial entity was orig ...

on the death of Benjamin Baker in 1907, a position he held until 1916 and in which role he acted as arbitrator in railway disputes. Elliott-Coope rwas 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 ...

(ICE) for the November 1912 to November 1913 session – he had been an associate member since 1870, a full member since 1876, member of the council since 1900 and vice-president from 1909.. In October 1913 he held the institution's inaugural meeting in the newly built headquarters at

One Great George Street One Great George Street (OGGS) is a four-domed grade II listed Edwardian building used as a conference and wedding venue just off Parliament Square in Westminster, London, England. The building is the global headquarters of the Institution of C ...

, for which he had chaired the building committee. He was chairman of the Engineering Standards Association committee on steel bridges from 1911 to 1928 and a member of the

committee which established standards for the use of

in 1919. In 1912 he was appointed to the advisory board of the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

, and in 1914 to the India Office Committee where he worked on appointments made to the Public Works Department and the Indian state railways. In 1914 he was also appointed to the general board of the National Physical Laboratory and of the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

Tribunal of Appeal (in relation to the Building Act). In 1916 he was a member of the Committee on the Deterioration of Structure Exposed to Sea Action and in 1919 on the government's Mining Sub-Committee. Elliott-Cooper was elected president of the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

in 1923.. In 1925 he served as technical advisor to the British Treasury in which role he supervised payments made to contractors under the Trades Facilities Act. In marking his 85th birthday in 1930 the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' noted that he was "among the oldest of English engineers". He drew up the plans for the widening of Knowle Locks on the

Warwick and Birmingham Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

in the 1930s. The ICE recognised his service with election as an honorary member on 22 February 1938.

Volunteer military service

On 27 September 1870 he was commissioned into the 1st Yorkshire (West Riding) Artillery Volunteer Corps as a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

, a rank replaced by that of lieutenant during

standardisation in 1871. The 1st Yorkshire (West Riding) Artillery Volunteer Corps was a

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of c ...

unit formed at

in 1860 and armed with 32-pounder guns. Elliott-Cooper was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 5 June 1875 and

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 16 April 1879. He resigned his commission as a major on 27 February 1886 and was permitted to retain his rank and continue to wear the uniform. Elliott-Cooper later returned to the army by serving in the

, an unpaid volunteer unit which provides technical expertise to the

. He was commissioned into this corps as a

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

on 6 January 1900. He was awarded the

Volunteer Officers' Decoration The Volunteer Officers' Decoration, post-nominal letters VD, was instituted in 1892 as an award for long and meritorious service by officers of the United Kingdom's Volunteer Force. Award of the decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom ...

on 15 November 1904 in recognition of his twenty years service as a volunteer officer. Elliott-Cooper continued in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps as a lieutenant colonel after that corps' transferral from the Volunteer Force to the newly formed

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

on 1 April 1908. He was made Commandant of the corps on 27 July 1912 and promoted to the honorary rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

. He resigned his commission with the corps on 21 March 1914 and was again permitted to retain his rank and wear the uniform. During the

he was chairman of the ICE War Office Committee and of the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

Committee of Hutted Camps, a service for which he was rewarded with an appointment as

on 1 January 1919.

Personal life and death

In 1878 at or near

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, then in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, he married Fanny, daughter of William Leetham, and they had six children: Evelyn, Gilbert, Malcolm, Millicent, Vera and Neville. Fanny died at age 92 in 1948. Neville became a British Army lieutenant-colonel and was awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

and

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. He died in German captivity of wounds received in action during the First World War. Elliott-Cooper at one point lived at 44 Princes Gate in

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

.. He died aged 97 on 16 February 1942 at Knapwood House,

Knaphill Knaphill is a village in Surrey, England, between Woking to the east and Aldershot to the west; to the south and north on the A322 – its western border – are Brookwood, and Bisley. Some of the village is on a hill, hence its name. ...

, Surrey, and his will was proved on 8 June 1942 by his only surviving son and executor Malcolm, his effects being valued at 76,000 pounds which would be worth over 3.2 million pounds in 2015.Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott-Cooper, Robert 1845 births 1942 deaths Engineers from Yorkshire British civil engineers Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Royal Artillery officers Engineer and Railway Staff Corps officers People educated at Leeds Grammar School Scientists of the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)