Bevil Guy Mabey
Bevil Guy Mabey
1916 Born in Richmond, Yorkshire, son of Guy Mabey
Read anthropology, archaeology and history at Cambridge but no formal training as an engineer
WWII Active service in France, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece. Observed a team of Royal Engineers assembling a Bailey Bridge at Cassino in 1944.
Post-WWII: returned to the family business, Mabey and Johnson, where he invested in research and development to improve the Bailey bridge concept for civilian applications.
He also bought up Bailey bridge components on the army surplus market for resale to contractors and anticipated the demand for steel modular bridges from the construction industry in the late 1950.
He designed an improved version of the Bailey bridge, which was lighter but with fewer parts and twice the loading capacity. It was also less noisy, easier to maintain and its component parts could be transported by Land Rover.
1980s Mabey negotiated a contract with the British Army to supply bridges, which quickly proved themselves in Bosnia and later in Iraq and Afghanistan.
1984 Appointed CBE for his export achievements.
2010 died at the age of 94.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Nedias newsletter # 39