William Henry Warren
Professor William Henry Warren (1852-1926)
1927 Obituary [1]
Professor WILLIAM HENRY WARREN, LLB., son of William Warren was born at Bristol on the 2nd February, 1852. He was educated privately at Bristol and later at the Oxens College, Manchester, and served an apprenticeship at Wolverton, from 1865 to 1872, under Messrs. J. Ramsbottom and F. W. Webb, MM. Inst. C.E., in the locomotive works of the London and North Western Railway.
From 1872 to 1874 he studied Engineering and Mechanical Science at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and the Owens College, Manchester, and obtained a Royal Exhibition, a Whitworth Scholarship, and the Society of Arts First Prize and Scholarship.
During the period 1874 to 1876 he had charge of the drawing-office, with supervision of works, at the Crown Iron Works, Ltd., and with Messrs. E. T. Bellhouse and Company, Manchester. He was engaged in 1876, as Engineer to Messrs. Magnall and Littlewoods, in designing and superintending the construction of local works, including a gasworks at Manchester which was estimated to cost more than £1,000,000.
He went to New South Wales in 1880, where he was engaged in the Roads and Bridges Department of Public Works under E. W. C. Bennett, M. Inst. C.E. His association with the University of Sydney, where the remaining 42 years of his life were spent, began with his appointment as Challis Professor of Engineering in 1883 ; and in the following years he was responsible for the organization and development of the University School of Engineering. He became Dean of the Faculty in 1908, and was President of the Professional Board from 1919. Following his resignation from the Chair of Engineering at the end of 1925, he was appointed Emeritus Professor of Engineering. In 1912 an Honorary LL.D. Degree was conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow. In addition to his duties at the University, he was engaged in a consulting practice, chiefly in connection with government and municipal works. He also served on the Royal Commission on Railway Bridges appointed in 1884, and was a member of numerous Boards of Inquiry-notably that on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1904.
He was elected an Associate Member of The Institution in 1877 and transferred to the class of members in 1887 ; and was one of the Australasian representative members of the Council from 1920 to 1923. He was the first President of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and twice occupied the Presidential Chair of the Royal Society of New South Wales, before which body he read numerous Papers dealing with the properties and testing of materials. He was also a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a member of Council of the International Society for Testing Materials. Of his published works the best known is his treatise on “ Engineering Construction.” He was an authority on Australian timbers, and in 1911 his work on “ Properties of New South Wales Hardwood Timbers ” was published under the auspices of the Department of Forestry of New South Wales. He died suddenly from heart-failure at his home at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, on the 9th January, 1926.