Roger William Hercules Hawken (12 May 1878 – 18 October 1947), an Australian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, was the first lecturer in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

, and then a professor, at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Personal life

Hawken was born at

Darlington, New South Wales Darlington is a small, inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Darlington is located about 3 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. ...

, the son of

Nicholas Hawken Nicholas Hawken (1 January 1836 – 13 July 1908) was an English-born Australian politician. Hawken was born at St Austell in Cornwall to William Hawken and Phillipa Harding. He was educated locally and migrated to New South Wales in 1854, ...

MLC and Mary Jane (née Vance). He attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1893–1896) and in 1895 won the Wigram Allen Scholarship, awarded by Sir

George Wigram Allen Sir George Wigram Allen (16 May 1824 – 23 July 1885) was an Australian politician and philanthropist. He was Speaker in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1875–1883. Allen was held in high esteem. As speaker he showed dignity, courtes ...

, for mathematics. His tertiary education was at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

(B.C.E., 1900; B.A., 1902). He also received a Masters of Engineering from the University of Sydney. He died on 18 October 1947 after a week's illness and was cremated at Mt Thompson Crematorium. He was survived by his wife and five daughters.

Professional life

Hawken's academic bent was evident by 1903 in a remarkably advanced paper to the

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

Engineering Society on the structural analysis of bridges. Hawken worked as an engineer in the

Federated Malay States )Under God's Protection , capital = Kuala Lumpur1 , religion = Islam , legislature = Federal Legislative Council , type_house1 = State level , common_languages = , title_leader = Monarch , leader1 ...

for four years and then with local government authorities in New South Wales. In 1912 Hawken was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Queensland. He graduated M.C.E. from Sydney in 1918 after submitting a thesis on column design, a frontier topic of the period, and appears to have had slightly the better of a lively argument with the eminent English engineer, E. H. Salmon, who had written an authoritative text on the subject. Hawken was appointed as professor at the University of Queensland in 1919. Professor Hawken was involved in the founding of IEAust in 1919 and was its president in 1923 and a councillor till his death. At his suggestion in 1928,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

became the first state to legislate for compulsory registration of consulting engineers. In the 1920s he turned again to earth pressures and the stability of slopes; he thus was one of the pioneers of the study of

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 ...

, a subject generally neglected until the 1950s. In later work on rainfall runoff and flooding potential and the economic appraisal of engineering schemes, his ideas were well ahead of his time. Professor Hawken was reserved but excessively formal, with a wry, sometimes biting sense of humour. Engineering and the university was his life. He saw the complete engineer as a combination of wide experience and wide culture, encouraged originality in his students, called himself the 'senior student' and was known as 'hanks'. His work included design of an early version of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

that did not proceed to construction, and identification of crossing points for the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the ...

. He was involved in many major Brisbane projects including an early Victoria Bridge (the

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining wal ...

is still standing near QPAC) and the

Story Bridge The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the long ...

. In 2006,

Brisbane City Council Brisbane City Council (BCC) is the democratic executive local government authority for the City of Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The largest City Council in Australia by population and area, BCC's jurisd ...

proposed Hawken Bridge as one of 5 names for a new green bridge linking the

Dutton Park Dutton Park is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Dutton Park had a population of 2,024 people. Geography Dutton Park is located about south of the Brisbane CBD. It is bounded to the north-east ...

but ended up choosing the name Eleanor Schonell Bridge. In May 1947, he was asked to participate in an inquiry into a railway crash at Camp Mountain.

Named in his honour

Two major engineering buildings and library at the University of Queensland have been named in his honour. The first Hawken building was built in about 1964. However it was vacated by the Engineering Faculty after the construction of a new building in about the 1990s. The name Hawken Building was then assigned to the new building, and the old Hawken Building was renamed the Prentice Building, reflecting the Prentice Computer Centre which took over the building. The annual Hawken address, presented by the Queensland division of IEAust, is usually held in its Hawken Auditorium, the main lecture theatre in the Hawken Building. Shortly after his death in 1947, a road leading to the main UQ campus at

St Lucia, Queensland St Lucia is a riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the St Lucia had a population of 12,574 people. The University of Queensland is the main attraction of St Lucia, with the university, and residential colleges c ...

(then known as Coronation Drive) was renamed Hawken Drive.

References

External links

* D. H. Trollope
Hawken, Roger William Hercules (1878–1947)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 230–231. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawken, Roger 1878 births 1947 deaths People educated at Newington College University of Sydney alumni Australian civil engineers Academic staff of the University of Queensland