Walton Maughan
Walton Maughan (c1872-1938)
1938 Obituary [1]
WALTON MAUGHAN, who was well known for his ambitious canal projects for the north of England, was born at Kirkhaugh on Tyne, and educated at the University of Durham and at Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne.
In 1899 he commenced a pupilage under the engineer to the Urban District Council of Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, and in 1902 he was appointed engineer and surveyor. Shortly afterwards, however, he was made road surveyor to Norfolk County Council, and in 1905 he joined Warwickshire County Council in a similar capacity. After holding this position for seven years he was appointed road board assistant to Northamptonshire County Council, but in 1914 he enlisted, and received his commission a year later.
In 1916 he was made a bombing officer and in the following year a tank officer. He invented a special mounting for machine guns used for long-range firing and also devised various other gun mountings. After the War he took a special post-graduate course in geology at the University of Manchester, and then devoted himself to the various canal schemes associated with his name. The principal projects were for a Mersey-Humber canal, a Tyne-Solway canal, and a Forth-Clyde canal. He was also keenly interested in road transport problems and originated a device to enable drivers of motor vehicles, when approaching crossroads, to see any traffic coming along the converging roads. Another invention of his was an arrangement for taking a census of road traffic and he devised a scheme of road classification on a traffic census basis.
Mr. Maughan, who was elected an Associate Member of the Institution in 1919, died at Holmfirth on 23rd December 1938, in his sixty-sixth year.