Charles Peter Wroth (1929–1991) was a British civil engineer, a world pioneer in geotechnical engineering and

soil mechanics Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and wat ...

. He led the design and construction of the Hammersmith flyover.

Education

Wroth was educated at Marlborough College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied Engineering and carried out research in Soil Mechanics under Kenneth H. Roscoe, leading to the award of a PhD degree in 1958 with his thesis titled "The behaviour of soils and other granular media when subjected to shear". He served as Professor at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. He also served as Master of Emmanuel College for a brief period prior to his death.

Academic recognition

He delivered the 24th

Rankine Lecture The Rankine lecture is an annual lecture organised by the British Geotechnical Association named after William John Macquorn Rankine, an early contributor to the theory of soil mechanics. This should not be confused with the biennial BGA Géotec ...

, titled "The interpretation of in situ soil tests".

Sport

Wroth played county cricket at amateur level, playing

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

from 1947–50, and later for

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

in 1962. He also played international

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wroth, Charles Peter 1929 births 1991 deaths Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge British civil engineers English cricketers Devon cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers