Sir Gilbert Roberts (18 February 1899 – 1 January 1978) was a British civil engineer who designed many famous bridges worldwide.

Education

Roberts was born in Hampstead, north London, to Henry William Roberts, a pharmacist, and was educated at

Bromley High School Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

. He then went to

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students or award degrees. It was founded in 1596 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and hosts ove ...

to study engineering but on the outbreak of

WWI World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he joined the Royal Flying Corps.

Career

After being shot in the knee in 1918 on a bombing raid, Roberts was invalided back to England and awarded an Army Scholarship to attend

City and Guilds College The Faculty of Engineering is the engineering school of Imperial College London, and one of the three main faculties the college. It was formed in 2001 from the former City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines—two of the three o ...

of Imperial College, where he obtained his degree in 1923. He became a civil engineer and worked on the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

(1932) and Otto Beit suspension bridge (1938) across the

Zambezi River The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

As a senior partner with the British firm

Freeman Fox & Partners Hyder Consulting was a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employed approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Midd ...

he designed, in collaboration with William Brown, the Volta River Bridge (1957), the

Auckland Harbour Bridge The Auckland Harbour Bridge is an eight-lane motorway bridge over the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. It joins St Marys Bay on the Auckland city side with Northcote on the North Shore side. It is part of State Highway 1 and th ...

(1959–71), the

Forth Road Bridge The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinbur ...

(1964), the

Severn Bridge The Severn Bridge ( cy, Pont Hafren) is a motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and Wale ...

(1966), the

Bosphorus Bridge The Bosphorus Bridge ( tr, Boğaziçi Köprüsü), known officially as the 15 July Martyrs Bridge ( tr, 15 Temmuz Şehitler Köprüsü) and unofficially as the First Bridge ( tr, Birinci Köprü), is one of the three suspension bridges spanning ...

(1973) and the Humber Bridge (1981).

Awards

Roberts was knighted in 1965. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

on 18 March 1965. His application citation read: "Distinguished for his contributions to civil engineering by advancing the design of structures, particularly long span bridges. Designer of Severn Bridge, Forth Bridge, Volta Bridge, Maidenhead Bridge, Auckland Harbour Bridge. Also contributed designs of other unusual structures, such as C.S.I.R.O. Radio Telescope, High Marnham Power Station, the

Dome of Discovery The Dome of Discovery was a temporary exhibition building designed by architect Ralph Tubbs for the Festival of Britain celebrations which took place on London's South Bank in 1951, alongside the River Thames. The consulting engineers were Fr ...

at the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

Exhibition, crane structures including 500 tons goliath crane for Babcock & Wilcox." He was awarded their Royal Medal in 1968.

Personal life

Roberts married Elizabeth Nada Hora in London in 1935. He died in St Stephen's Hospital, London on 1 January 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Gilbert 1899 births 1978 deaths English civil engineers Royal Medal winners Fellows of the Royal Society British bridge engineers Engineers from London People from Hampstead