Significance of Robert Legget attending the 1st international conference on soil mechanics and foundation engineering, 1936

Overview

Born in Liverpool in 1904, Robert Legget obtained Batchelor and Masters degrees in engineering at University of Liverpool. He began his career on the Lochaber HEP scheme before emigrating to Canada in 1929. 

His decision to attend the 1st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at Harvard University was very likely a gamechanger for both this 31-year-old engineer’s career, and for the history of the geotechnical profession in Canada.  

This presentation recounts Legget’s attendance at the 1936 conference, and the influence it had throughout the remainder of his career and life. Following the conference, Leggett spent a decade at on the teaching staff of Queens University, Ontario and University of Toronto where he set up some of the first courses in soil mechanics and foundation engineering in Canada. 

He went on to establish a National Building Code, founded the Canadian Permafrost conferences and become founding President of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He was internationally recognised, serving as President of the Geological Society of America in 1966 and receiving an Honorary Doctorate from University of Liverpool in 1971. 

As an eminent civil engineering historian, he is the only Canadian to be awarded the ASCE History and Heritage Award.