William Henry White
Sir William Henry White (1845–1913), Naval Architect.
1845 Born at Devonport on 2 February 1845, was the youngest child of Richard White, a Currier, of Devonport, and his wife, Jane, daughter of W. Matthews, of Lostwithiel, Cornwall.
He was educated at a private school at Devonport and apprenticed as a shipwright in the royal dockyard there.
White was largely responsible for collating technical matters, published in Reed's Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel (1869), and for contributing to Reed's Our Iron Clad Ships (1869), and his paper ‘On the stresses of ships’ contributed to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1871).
White gave much consideration to the design of cruisers, and particularly to that of the Iris, laid down in 1875 — the first steel vessel built for the navy.
In 1883 White left the Admiralty to become designer and manager to Armstrong Whitworth at their warship yard, then being constructed at Elswick-on-Tyne.
He left Armstrongs in 1885 when, on Sir Nathaniel Barnaby's retirement, he was appointed director of naval construction.
1899-1900 President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
White, who left three sons and one daughter, was twice married: first, in 1875 to Alice (d. 1886), daughter of F. Martin, of Pembroke, chief constructor, RN; and second, in 1890 to Annie (who survived him), daughter of F. C. Marshall JP, of Tynemouth.
1908 Founding member and President of the Institute of Metals.[1]
1913 February 27th. White died suddenly, in the Westminster Hospital, Westminster, London
1913 Obituary [2]
Sir WILLIAM HENRY WHITE, K.C.B., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., was born at Devonport on 2nd February 1845, and, after education in the local schools, began work as an apprentice shipwright in the Royal Dockyard in his native town, attending meanwhile the dockyard school, in which he won an Admiralty scholarship in 1863.
At that time the Admiralty decided to establish the Royal School of Naval Architecture at South Kensington, in conjunction with the Science and Art Department — a school which was merged subsequently in the Royal Naval College at Greenwich; and at the earliest entrance examination he took first place, and continued during his three years' studentship to be first, graduating in 1867 with the Diploma of Fellow (first class).
In that year he entered the Admiralty, was promoted to the rank of Assistant Constructor in 1875, advanced to Chief Constructor in 1881, and, after about two years at Elswick, returned to the Admiralty as head of the Constructive Department, holding the offices of Director of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the Royal Navy from October 1885 to February 1902, when he retired owing to ill-health.
During his 35 years' career at the Admiralty he won high recognition for original and arduous work in connection with the development of the science of naval architecture generally.
When at Elswick Works, from 1883-85, he designed warships for Austria, Italy, Spain, China, and Japan, while his designs for two United States cruisers were bought by the authorities at Washington.
On his return to the Admiralty in 1885, the Navy was in an unsatisfactory condition, being made up of a great variety of types, but on Lord George Hamilton's scheme embodied in the Naval Defence Act of 1889 being passed, Sir William (then Mr.) White availed himself of the opportunity of achieving homogeneity of types. The result was the eight ships of the "Royal Sovereign" class. Under the Spencer programme of 1894 he produced nine "Majesties," and in these he was able to reduce the thickness of armour to 9 inches over the water-line, owing to the progress made in the supercarburization and chilling of the steel. The last ships designed were those of the King Edward VII class, of which eight were built.
During his seventeen years' tenure of office he was responsible for the design and construction of 43 battleships, 26 armoured cruisers, 21 first-class, 48 second-class, and 33 third- class protected cruisers, and 74 smaller vessels, exclusive of destroyers. These 245 vessels cost about £100,000,000. He was rewarded by being created a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1891, a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1895, and by receiving a special grant from Parliament in recognition of "exceptional services to the Navy."
After he had regained his health, which had been so undermined by his strenuous work at the Admiralty, he gradually took up various appointments where his experience and ability were valuable. Thus, he was on the Cunard Commission which determined the type of machinery to be installed in the "Lusitania" and "Mauretania," and was a director of Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, the builders of the latter vessel. He was a director of Parsons Marine Turbine Co., and of the Grand Trunk Railway Co. from the time they entered upon the ownership of steamships, and lately was appointed a Commissioner by the Government to inquire into the question of load-lines of merchant ships.
His "Manual of Naval Architecture," first published in 1877, and since revised, is a standard work, and has been translated into German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, and no less valuable is his "Treatise on Shipbuilding."
In his early days at the Admiralty he had been entrusted by Sir Edward Reed with the solutions of scientific problems in design and with the preparation of much data for Sir Edward's books on naval architecture, and for eleven years — 1870 to 1881 — he was lecturer at the Royal School of Naval Architecture, which in the interval was removed to Greenwich.
Numerous societies honoured him by electing him to offices of distinction. He was a Honorary Vice-President of the Institution of Naval Architects, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was elected a Member of this Institution in 1888, was a Member of Council from 1890 to 1897, when he was elected Vice-President, and occupied the Presidential Chair in 1899 and 1900. From then onwards he still showed keen interest in the work of the Institution, and frequently attended the various Committee, Council, and General Meetings. For his Presidential Address he took the subject of "The Connection between Mechanical Engineering and modern Shipbuilding." Although he contributed numerous Papers to various technical societies, the only Paper he gave to this Institution was at the Summer Meeting in Portsmouth in 1892, entitled "Shipbuilding in Portsmouth Dockyard."
On the occasion of the Plymouth Meeting in 1899 under his Presidency, the opportunity was taken by his native Borough of Devonport to present him with the Freedom of the Borough; and in 1902 the Members of the Council presented an excellent portrait of Sir William to this Institution.
All through his career he had seen the necessity for the combination of theoretical and practical training, and had done much to foster research work; this was exemplified by the continuous interest he took in the work of the Alloys Research Committee of this Institution, of which he was Chairman from 1899 to the time of his death.
During 1903-4 he was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and in 1909 he filled the Chair of the recently-formed Institute of Metals. He was President-Designate of the British Association for this year, of the Mechanical Science Section of which he was President is few years ago. To each Institution he delivered an Address which was worthy of him and characterized by breadth of view. He greatly encouraged all technical colleges and was frequently in request as a speaker at the distribution of prizes and other functions.
He received honours from several Universities. He was a D.Sc. of Cambridge, an LL.D. of Glasgow, a D.Eng. of Sheffield, and a D.Sc. of Durham and of Columbia, N.Y. He was a Past-Master of the Shipwrights' Company of London. Many foreign Institutions honoured him, and in 1911 the "John Fritz Medal" was awarded him for his "notable achievements in naval architecture," by a special Board of Award appointed by the four leading engineei societies in America; and the King of Denmark conferred upon him the dignity of Knight Commander of the Order of Dannebrog.
His death took place suddenly after a paralytic seizure at his office in Westminster, on 27th February 1913, at the age of sixty-eight.
1913 Obituary [3]
1913 Obituary [4]
SIR WILLIAM HENRY WHITE, K.C.B., F.R.S., formerly Director of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the Royal Navy, died suddenly on the 27th February, 1913, in Westminster Hospital, where he was brought, suffering from a paralytic seizure, from his office in Victoria Street, shortly after noon.
The extent and intensity of the regret which his untimely end awakened, and the universality of the tribute paid to his genius, are only just recognitions of the great services which Sir William White rendered in advancing naval architecture from both scientific and practical standpoints, and of the conscientious and most successful work he did in the responsible position he held for 7 years at the Admiralty....(more)
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1921/09/23, page 314.
- ↑ 1913 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries
- ↑ The Engineer 1913/03/07
- ↑ 1913 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries
- [1] DNB