Thomas Malcolm Charlton FRSE (1 September 1923 – 1 February 1997) was a British civil engineer and historian. He is remembered for several notable textbooks on structural issues. He was a great lover of railways and railway engines.

Life

He was born on 1 September 1923, in

South Normanton South Normanton is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover District of Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 9,445. An ex-mining village, it is two miles east of Alfreton. The historic industries of the village were agr ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, the son of William Charlton, a mining engineer, and Emily May Wellbank. His early education was at

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Grammar School and then Doncaster Technical College. His university education began at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

, graduating BSc in 1943, but was the interrupted by 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 opposi ...

, which also caused a relocation of studies to

University College Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

(under Prof C H Bulleid). After graduating, he was then interviewed by

C.P. Snow Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English novelist and physical chemist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government.''The Columbia Encyclope ...

for a position as a Junior Scientific Officer in what became the

Royal Radar Establishment The Royal Radar Establishment was a research centre in Malvern, Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1953 as the Radar Research Establishment by the merger of the Air Ministry's Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) a ...

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the eastern flanks of the Worcestershire Beacon and North Hill, and i ...

, and took up this position. In 1946, Charlton began work as an engineer and technical advisor in Newcastle. He stayed there for eight years. In 1954,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

offered him a lectureship and he moved there with his young family. The university granted him an honorary MA degree in the same year. In 1963, he was offered a Professorship by Queen's University Belfast, and accepted, finding this a much more comfortable position. At Queen's, he became a member of many university committees, including the Buildings and General Policy Committee. In this role he condemned the concrete of university halls of residence, then under construction, as substandard, leading to their demolition. During the civil unrest in Northern Ireland he was asked to sit on the six person Advisory Council to the

Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their offi ...

under the chairmanship of General Sir John Anderson. In 1970,

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

offered him a chair and he was Professor of Engineering there until he retired. An invitation to act as a visiting lecturer to Finland led to his being elected a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences. In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. After his retirement in 1979, he moved with his wife to Burwell, Cambridgeshire and continued to write. He died at Burwell on 1 February 1997.

Family

He married Valerie McCulloch in 1950. They had two sons: Richard who became a minister and Edward who joined the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Publications

See *''Model Analysis of Structure'' (1954) *''Hydro-electric Engineering Practice'' (1958) *''Energy Principles in Applied Statics'' (1959) *''Principles of Structural Analysis'' (1969) *''Energy Theory in the Principles of Structures'' (1973) *''The Works of I K Brunel'' (1976) *''A History of the Theory of Structures in the Nineteenth Century'' (1982) *''Professor Emeritus'' (an autobiography) (1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Thomas Malcolm 1923 births 1997 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British civil engineers People from South Normanton Alumni of the University of Nottingham Academics of the University of Cambridge Academics of Queen's University Belfast Academics of the University of Aberdeen