Allan Duncan Stewart
Allan Duncan Stewart (1831-1894)
1895 Obituary [1]
ALLAN DUNCAN STEWART, born on the 7th of March, 1831, was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated 9th Wrangler in 1853.
From 1855 to 1858 he served articles to Benjamin Hall Blyth, and in 1859 and 1860 acted as Resident Engineer on the construction of the Banffshire Railway, and of a section of the Portpatrick line.
In 1861 Mr. Stewart began to practise in Edinburgh as a Civil Engineer. During the following twenty years he prepared Parliamentary plans for, and laid out - sometimes on his own responsibility and sometimes for other engineers - various lines of railway, including the Ascot and Aldershot, and the Sheffield, Buxton and Chapel-en-le-Frith.
He also designed and superintended the construction of several bridges, among which may be mentioned that over the Tay at Grandtully ; and works for the mater-supply of the village of Liberton, for the drainage of Gorebridge, and for the widening and deepening of the rivers Leet and Tummel.
Mr. Stewart was extensively employed in assisting Sir Thomas Bouch in the design and execution of several iron and steel bridges, and in the various calculations involved, his high mathematical attainments and practical experience in iron construction being extremely useful. For Sir Thomas Bouch he prepared working drawings for the superstructure of the Redheugh Bridge, near Newcastle-on-Tyne; for the whole of the girders of the Tay Bridge; for the roofs of Waverley Station, Edinburgh, and Dundee Station; and for the steel piers, chains and girders of the proposed suspension bridge across the Firth of Forth.
In 1880 he gave important evidence before the Royal Commission on the Tay Bridge disaster.
From 1881 to 1890 Mr. Stewart acted as Chief Assistant Engineer for Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, on the design and construction of the Forth Bridge.
He then practised in Westminster and obtained - in conjunction with J. M. Maclaren and W. Dunn - the first prize, of 500 guineas, in the competition designs for the Wembley Tower. This design was not adopted, but Sir Benjamin Baker, being subsequently instructed to proceed with the work on a simpler and cheaper plan, associated Mr. Stewart with himself as joint Engineer.
He was engaged in the duties connected with this office when he was incapacitated by illness, which terminated fatally on the 31st of October, 1894, his decease being probably accelerated by the death of his son and daughter on the same day in his house a few weeks previously.
Mr. Stewart was elected a Member of the Institution on the 7th of February, 1882. Ten years later, he presented a valuable Paper on 'Stresses and Deflections in Braced Girders,' for which the Council awarded him a Telford Premium. He was of a retiring disposition, and rarely attended the meetings of the Institution; but those of his professional brethren who knew him best most regret his loss.
1894 Obituary [2]