Geoffrey Morse Binnie FRS FEng (13 November 1908 – 5 April 1989) was a British

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 ...

and writer particularly associated with dams and reservoirs. Binnie was the third generation of his family to enter civil engineering (his grandfather was Sir

Alexander Binnie Sir Alexander Richardson Binnie (26 March 1839 – 18 May 1917) was a British civil engineer responsible for several major engineering projects, including several associated with crossings of the River Thames in London. He was born in London t ...

, and father William Binnie). He was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Zurich University. On graduation, he became a pupil of Swiss engineer Dr Henry Edward Gruner, working on a hydro-electric scheme, Seruf-Niederenbach, in the Alps, and then on a larger project, Albbruck-Dogern on the

River Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , sourc ...

. He joined the Binnie & Partners firm of consulting engineers in 1931. From 1932–1936, he worked on the 88m high Jubilee Dam in Hong Kong, the then highest dam in the British Empire. Upon his return to the UK, he worked on the construction of Eye Brook Reservoir at Corby, Northamptonshire. In 1939, he was appointed a Partner in the family firm. During World War II, he served in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

. After the war, he worked on various water supply projects in the UK and overseas, including the Kalatuwawa Dam, near Hanwella, which supplies water to Colombo in Sri Lanka. Other major projects included: * Dukan Dam, on

River Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empti ...

, Iraq * Mangla Dam, on the Jhelum River, Pakistan, today still the world's 16th largest dam. *the W. A. C. Bennett Dam, part of the Peace River Project, British Columbia, Canada Binnie retired in December 1972, but remained active on various committees concerned with dams and barrages, including the Severn Barrage Committee from 1977–1979. He also researched the history of water and dam engineering; his first book ''Early Victorian Water Engineers'' was published in 1981, and in 1987, his second book, ''Early Dam Builders in Britain'' was published.

Honours

He was a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975. During his career, his ICE honours and awards included the Telford Premium (1938),

George Stephenson Medal George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

(1959),

Telford Gold Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

(1968), the Smeatonian Society's John Smeaton Gold Medal (1974) and the Newcomen Society's Dickinson Medal (1976).

Legacy

His life and work is commemorated by an annual lecture organised by the

British Dam Society The British Dam Society was established in London, UK, in 1965ICE Associated Societies newsletter, Spring/Summer 2011 (Accessed: 19 July 2013) and is a learned 'Associated Society' of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a registered charity i ...

.ICE Associated Societies newsletter, Spring/Summer 2011 (Accessed: 19 July 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binnie, Geoffrey 1908 births 1989 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge British civil engineers Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers People educated at Charterhouse School