Sir Basil Mott, 1st Baronet, FRS (16 September 1859 – 7 September 1938) was one of the most notable English

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

s of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was responsible for some of the most innovative work on tunnels and bridges in the United Kingdom in the 40-year period centred on

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Early career

Basil Mott was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

on 16 September 1859. He was educated at the International School,

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and at the

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where he won the Murchison medal in 1879. He was first employed as a mining engineer with the

Neston Neston is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire, England. It is within the part of the Wirral Peninsula that belongs to the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The built up area (as defined by the Office for National Statistic ...

Colliery Co. in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

but in 1886 was invited by J H Greathead to join the staff of the City & South London Railway (C&SLR), for which Greathead was Engineer. His work on the C&SLR gave him a taste for underground construction works that influenced the remaining 40 years of his professional life. He did well at the C&SLR and was promoted, first to resident engineer (RE) for the extension of the C&SLR from Stockwell to

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, then to RE for the entire line. After the railway opened in 1890, he was retained as Engineer by the operating company: this gave him the opportunity to develop techniques for carrying out reconstruction works during overnight possessions of the tunnels, techniques which are still used on LU today. Shortly after Greathead's death in October 1896, Benjamin Baker formed a partnership with Mott for the design of the Central London Railway. Their association continued with the extensions and rebuilding on the C&SLR (including the underpinning of St Mary Woolnoth church at Bank) and the widening of

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple C ...

. They worked from the same offices until Baker's death in 1907.

Mott, Hay and Anderson

1n 1902, Mott formed what turned out to be a lifelong partnership with another protégé of Baker's, David Hay. Subsequently, the partnership of Mott and Hay (now Mott MacDonald) worked on extending the Central London Railway, the building of escalators in

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and the construction of the Tyne and

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City of London, City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the List of ...

s. It also designed the underpinning required to stabilise Clifford's Tower in

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. During the first world war, Basil Mott visited France and

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, advising the government on solving engineering problems. He was created a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1918 in recognition of these services. The Mersey Tunnel, which he worked on between 1922 and 1934, is his most well-known work. From the outset, it was designed on a large scale; it is still the longest, widest road tunnel in Great Britain. Basil Mott was Engineer for the works, in association with J. A. Brodie, Engineer for the City of Liverpool. His partnership (by then named Mott, Hay and Anderson) designed and supervised the construction of the Mersey Tunnel in its entirety. In 1924, he was elected President of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

. In 1926 he was hired by Southampton council to investigate the various options for building a fixed crossing across the lower River Itchen. Along with proving costs for a tunnel and a high level crossing he recommended a low level opening span bridge. Basil Mott's other post- WW1 works include the extension to

Morden Morden is a district and town in South London, England, now within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton, Londo ...

of the

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, the enlargement of the original C&SLR tunnels from 10' 6" to 11' 8" (using a tunnelling shield which could be worked at night but through which trains could drive during the day), the Jubilee Bridge and work on the Tees Newport Bridge. In 1930, aged 71, he gave evidence to a British government inquiry on the engineering aspects of a proposed

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

(which was not built, though Mott, Hay and Anderson designed the bulk of the successful scheme for Channel Tunnel half a century later). In the same year he was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

. In May 1932 he became a

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

—a rare honour for a civil engineer. He died on 7 September 1938, in London. The baronetcy is currently held by his great-grandson, David Hugh Mott (born 1952).

References

Bibliography

* ''Mott, Hay & Anderson, Consulting Civil Engineers'', Newman Neame Ltd., 1965 * Mott MacDonald, ''The Channel Tunnel; A Designer's Perspective'', 1994 * Greathead, J. H., ''The City and South London Railway'' – Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Vol 123, 1895 * Mott, B. and Hay, D., ''Underground Railways in Great Britain'', Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. 54, part F: (1905) * Anderson, D., ''Tube Railway Tunnelling'', Transactions of the Liverpool Engineering Society, vol. 45, pp. 201–228 * Mersey Tunnels Joint Committee, ''The Story of the Mersey Tunnel, officially named Queensway,'' 1934 * Anderson, D., ''The Construction of the Mersey Tunnel,'' Paper 5056, Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers 1935–36, vol. 2, pp 473–544. * Correspondence about ''Anderson on Construction of the Mersey Tunnel,'' Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers 1935–36, vol. 2, pp 649–660. * Mott, Hay & Anderson, ''Some Recent Tunnelling in Great Britain,'' The Consulting Engineer, December 1949, pp. 344–351 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mott, Basil 1859 births 1938 deaths Engineers from Leicester Mott, Basil, 1st Baronet British construction businesspeople English civil engineers Companions of the Order of the Bath Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Fellows of the Royal Society