George John Smeaton: the Father of English Civil Engineering

“Civil-engineers are a self-created set of men, whose profession owes its origin, 'not to power of influence; but to the best of all protection, the encouragement of a great and powerful nation;—a nation become so, from the industry and steadiness of its manufacturing workmen...”

Such was the claim of the Society of Civil Engineers in the year 1812 when the industrial revolution was already transforming much of English society and calling into existence public works on a scale never before imagined.

Yet only a century earlier the term “civil engineer” was virtually unknown in England, and enterprising traders or landowners who promoted river improvement or bridge-building had often to rely on the services of some scarcely literate millwright. Of the many talented engineers who helped to raise their profession from these humble origins during the eighteenth century, none had a more powerful influence than John Smeaton.