William Archer Porter Tait

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FRMS MICE (1866–1929) was a 19th/20th century Scottish civil engineer and part of the Guthrie Tait dynasty. He was Vice President of the

Institute 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, wh ...

in 1929.

Life

He was born on 25 March 1866 at 6 Greenhill Gardens in south-east Edinburgh, the second son of

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook '' Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote wi ...

and his wife, Margaret Porter. He was named after his maternal uncle,

William Archer Porter William Archer Porter (c. 1825 - d. 16 July 1890) was a British lawyer and educationist who served as the Principal of Government Arts College, Kumbakonam and tutor and secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore. Early life and education Porter was b ...

. He was educated at

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, is now part of the Se ...

. From 1881 he studied Engineering at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

under Prof

Fleeming Jenkin Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin FRS FRSE LLD (; 25 March 1833 – 12 June 1885) was Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, remarkable for his versatility. Known to the world as the inventor of the cable car or telphera ...

graduating BSc in 1885. He was then apprenticed for a year at Brown Brothers Engineering on Broughton Road in Edinburgh. In 1886/7 he did work creating the

Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland. It opened in st ...

. In 1887 he was articled to Sir

John Wolfe Barry Sir John Wolfe Barry (7 December 1836 – 22 January 1918), the youngest son of famous architect Sir Charles Barry, was an English civil engineer of the late 19th and early 20th century. His most famous project is Tower Bridge over the River ...

then to

Henry Marc Brunel Henry Marc Brunel (27 June 1842 – 7 October 1903) was an English civil engineer and the son of the celebrated engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and grandson of civil engineer Marc Isambard Brunel. Henry Marc Brunel was born in Westminster, Lo ...

. Here he worked on the foundations of

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...

and on the

Barry Docks Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...

. He continued with Wolfe Barry for three years after his articles were complete, and accompanied him on several court hearings He returned to Scotland in 1891 as assistant engineer to the Glasgow Subway project under Charles de Neuville Forman. In August 1894 he joined James Leslie (engineer), Leslie and Reid alongside Alexander Leslie (engineer), Alexander Leslie to replace Robert Carstairs Reid. His main project was Talla Reservoir on the Talla Water in the Scottish Borders which played a major role in serving Edinburgh and allowing its expansion. In 1898 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Charles Alexander Stevenson, George Barclay Bruce, George Barclay and John Sturgeon Mackay. He received an honorary doctorate (DSc) from the University of Edinburgh in 1910. He served as Vice President to the Society from 1921 to 1924. In 1910 he had offices at 72 George Street in New Town, Edinburgh, Edinburgh's First New Town and lived at 38 George Square, Edinburgh, George Square. He died in Edinburgh on 23 June 1929. He is buried with his parents and siblings in St. John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, st John's churchyard at the west end of Princes Street in Edinburgh. The grave lies on one of the lower eastern terraces, behind a grey granite Celtic cross to his brother, Frederick Guthrie Tait. He bequeathed his collection of legal books to the library at One Great George Street in London.

Family

His siblings included John Guthrie Tait and Frederick Guthrie Tait.

Publications

*''The Talla Water Supply of Edinburgh'' (1907)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tait, William Archer Porter 1866 births 1929 deaths Engineers from Edinburgh People educated at Edinburgh Academy Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish civil engineers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh