Sir Harold Montague "Monty" Finniston FRS

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 ...

(15 August 1912 – 2 February 1991) was a Scottish industrialist.

Life

He was born at 26 Aikenhead Road in

Govanhill Govanhill ( gd, Cnoc a' Ghobhainn) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Glasgow, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park, Glasgow, Queen's Park. Shires of Sco ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

the son of Robert Finniston. His family were of

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

origin, and their surname had originally been Feinstein before settling in Scotland. He attended

Allan Glen's School Allan Glen's School was, for most of its existence, a local authority, selective secondary school for boys in Glasgow, Scotland, charging nominal fees for tuition. It was founded by the Allan Glen's Endowment Scholarship Trust on the death, ...

. Monty Finniston read metallurgical chemistry at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, where he gained his PhD and then lectured in metallurgy. He spent the years 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 opposi ...

in the Royal Naval Scientific Service, seconded to the

Chalk River Laboratories Chalk River Laboratories (french: Laboratoires de Chalk River; also known as CRL, Chalk River Labs and formerly Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, CRNL) is a Canadian nuclear research facility in Deep River, about north-west of Ottawa. CRL is ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

working on the application of nuclear power to submarines. After the war he worked in Canada, and then was appointed Chief Metallurgist at the

Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

, Harwell. The years 1948–1958 which he spent there were a time of rapid development of nuclear power. Finniston initiated and oversaw a wide-ranging research programme into the many metallurgical problems associated with nuclear reactor design, involving uranium fuel elements, their light alloy cladding, and reactor containment vessels. In 1958 he moved to north-east England to become Director of the Nuclear Research Centre newly founded by the Newcastle engineering firm C. A. Parsons. When enthusiasm for atomic power waned in the early 1960s, he persuaded Parsons' board to convert the Centre into International Research and Development Ltd. (IRD), a wide-ranging contract engineering research company. He was Vice-President of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, 1971–72. He became chairman of

British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in 1973, and was

knighted 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 G ...

in the same year. In 1974 he was awarded the

Bessemer Gold Medal The Bessemer Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufact ...

, and in 1975 he was awarded the

A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize The A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in commemoration of Alan Arnold Griffith. History The award was established by the Materials Science Club of Great Britain in 1965, two year ...

and elected President of the Institution of Metallurgists. In 1976 he was invited to deliver the Marlow (Scotland) Lecture to the

Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland (IESIS) is a multi-disciplinary professional body and learned society, founded in Scotland, for professional engineers in all disciplines and for those associated with or taking an interes ...

. He chose the subject "The Developing Role of Management in Industry". In 1978 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were Sir John Atwell, Sir

Samuel Curran Sir Samuel Crowe Curran (23 May 1912 – 15 February 1998), FRS, FRSE, was a physicist and the first Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde – the first of the new technical universities in Britain. He is the invent ...

, Robert A. Smith and

Francis Penny Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural Mu ...

. In response to complaints from industry about a shortage of qualified engineers, the government in 1977 invited Finniston to set up a committee of enquiry into British engineering. In 1979 the committee delivered the

Finniston Report The Finniston Report (also known as The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Engineering Profession or by its title ''Engineering Our Future'') was a report into the engineering profession in the United Kingdom, commissioned in 1979 by the La ...

, which addressed the concerns that engineering was of relatively low status in the UK. One of the main recommendations was that universities should offer engineering degrees (BEng and MEng) rather than just science degrees (BSc). This report also led to the establishment of the Engineering Council in 1982, and of WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) in 1984. Despite this chance to help Engineering in the UK, Finniston's effort was effectively quashed by the 'Big Three' institutions - the Mechanicals, Electricals, and Civils - who subsequently have done nothing to bolster the status of the Engineer in the UK, whilst other major countries have succeeded. Sir Monty Finniston was Chancellor of

Stirling University The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built ...

from 1979 to 1988, in succession to

Lord Robbins Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British economist, and prominent member of the economics department at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed de ...

. In 1981 he founded the

Prison Reform Trust The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) was founded in 1981 in London, England, by a small group of prison reform campaigners who were unhappy with the direction in which the Howard League for Penal Reform was heading, concentrating more on community punis ...

(PRT). He was President of the

Association for Project Management The Association for Project Management is a British professional organisation for project and programme management. It received a Royal Charter in 2017, and is a registered charity. It has over 37,500 individual and 550 corporate members, and ...

from 1984 until his death in 1991.History of the Association for Project Management 1972 - 2010, Association for Project Management He died on 2 February 1991.

Family

In 1936 he married Miriam Singer.

References

External sources

Video interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finniston, Harold Montague 1912 births 1991 deaths British metallurgists Finniston, Harold Montague (Monty) Scottish Jews People from Govanhill and Crosshill People associated with the University of Stirling People educated at Allan Glen's School Alumni of the University of Glasgow British industrialists Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor Bessemer Gold Medal Scottish people of Russian-Jewish descent