Sir Basil Mott
Civil engineer and ICE past president
Expertise
Bridges, Rail, Construction, GeotechnicalLocation
United KingdomMy highlights
Working on the City & Southwark Railway, the first modern tube
Constructing the second deep-level tube, the Central London Railway
Building the pioneering Mersey Road Tunnel
Why you might have heard of Sir Basil Mott
Sir Basil Mott, the ICE’s 60th President from 1924-1925, was a civil engineer best known for his work on tunnels and bridges across the UK.
He worked on some of the first underground railways of London’s tube network, and built the Mersey road tunnel (now the Queensway Tunnel or the Birkenhead Tunnel) in Liverpool, a record-breaking structure at the time.
He co-founded the Mott, Hay and Anderson partnership, which went on to become Mott MacDonald, one of the most notable engineering consultancies in the world.
Sir Basil served on several government committees and was apparently well-known in Westminster and throughout England.
Indeed, when handing over the ICE presidency, his predecessor, Sir Charles Morgan, claimed “nothing need be said by way of introduction”.
We travel backwards and forwards about our daily work, we light our houses, we have our water supply, our supply of food, etc., and we take it all rather as a matter of course, without the ordinary citizen considering where he would be but for the work of engineers.
Sir Basil Mott, from his presidential address
Learn more about Sir Basil
Education
Sir Basil Mott was educated at the Leicester Grammar School, the International College in Isleworth, Middlesex and in Soleure, Switzerland.
He then attended the Royal School of Mines in South Kensington, London.
Career
Sir Basil started his career as a mining engineer, where he learned about working underground.
The London Underground
Sir Basil started his work on London tubes when he became an assistant to civil engineer, James Henry Greathead.
Greathead was working on the very first ‘modern’ tube in London, known as the City and South London Railway (which today forms parts of the Northern line). The line, built between 1886 and 1890, went from Monument to Stockwell.
Before that, there were only the Metropolitan and District Railways, which were steam operated.
At 25 years old, Sir Basil became resident engineer of this pioneering work.
It employed the Greathead shield, a supporting structure used during tunnel excavations to prevent the soil from caving in. This was the first time the shield was used on a large scale.
Sir Basil then entered a partnership with ICE Past President, Sir Benjamin Baker, and started work on the second deep-level tube, known as the Central London Railway (now the Central line). Opened in 1900, it initially went from Bank to Shepherd's Bush.
As the tube network grew and traffic increased, lifts were replaced with escalators, wider tunnels were needed for larger carriages, and lines required extending.
Sir Basil continued to be involved in many of these construction works throughout his career as consulting engineer for the London Passenger Trust Board.
Bridges and roads
After Sir Benjamin’s death in 1907, Sir Basil partnered with David Hay and David Anderson, founding the practice Mott, Hay and Anderson (now Mott MacDonald).
Through this partnership he worked on a number of bridge and road schemes.
Some of the most notable ones include the Southwark Bridge reconstruction and the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.
Sir Basil also did some pioneering work on the Tees Newport Bridge in Middlesborough. It was the first of its kind in Great Britain, and one of the largest in the world at the time.
One of the most important projects of Sir Basil’s career is the Mersey road tunnel (known as the Queensway Tunnel). His firm designed and supervised the construction of the tunnel from start to finish.
It’s remarkable because, at that time, it was the largest underwater tunnel in the world. No other tunnel of that scale, that was also ventilated for petrol-driven traffic, had been attempted before.
Personal life
Sir Basil was born in Leicester, UK on 16 September 1859 and died in London on 7 September 1938.
He married Florence Harmar Parker and they had two sons together.
A hundred years later...
In his presidential address, Sir Basil offered his sympathies to the ICE president who'd come 100 years after him, wishing him luck in finding a topic to discuss that hadn't been covered in 200 years.
He said: "Perhaps 100 years hence I may be able to look, from some obscure corner of the universe, upon the president of that period delivering his address with the addresses of two centuries behind him. I do not know what he will say, but whoever he may be, he will have my most sincere sympathy."
That president is Professor Jim Hall. He spoke about an infrastructure strategy for a sustainable future. Watch his address:
Other notable projects
- Kingston Bridge widening
- Queensferry Bridge over the river Dee at Chester
- Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland
- Boothferry Bridge near Goole
- Consulting on the Charing Cross Bridge scheme and the Channel Tunnel
- St Paul's Cathedral preservation project in 1925
Membership of societies
- Sir Basil became a member of the ICE in 1895, joined council in 1912, became vice president in 1920 and president in 1924.
- He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1932.
- For his service offering engineering advice to the government during World War I, he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).
- In 1930, in King George V's Birthday Honours List, Sir Basil was made a baronet for his services to engineering.
