Harold Harding

Sir Harold John Boyer Harding ( born January 6, 1900 in Wandsworth, London, † March 27, 1986 in Topsham, Devon ) was a British civil engineer in particular for tunneling and geotechnics.

Harding studied from 1917 at the City and Guilds College, Imperial College London, interrupted in 1918 of one year officer training. In 1922, he received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He then worked for the construction company John Mowlem and Company, particularly in the construction of the London Underground. Among other things he was involved in the renewal of Piccadilly Circus Station from 1926 to 1929 and from 1936 to 1938 for the extension of the Central Line. In 1931 he was involved in the foundation for the construction of the Ford plant in Dagenham on difficult ground, where he for the first time in the UK chemical processes for consolidation testing. The chemical soil stabilization by Joosten he sat for the first time in the UK. During World War II, he was responsible for the underground buildings in London and built artificial harbors for the Normandy landings ( Mulberry Harbour ) and transport vessels for fuel from prefabricated concrete parts. In 1942 he was a founder of Soil Mechanics Ltd. , One belonging to company Mowlem for geotechnical and soil mechanics tests. 1949 to 1956 he was its director from 1950 to 1956 and also director of Mowlem and worked for them in an advisory capacity until 1978. Harding was from 1958 to 1970 in a commission that investigated the possibilities for a tunnel under the English Channel. He was also involved in the investigation of the catastrophic landslide a mining waste dump in the village of Aberfan in Wales, which in 1966 a school was spilled and 116 children and 28 adults died.

1963 to 1964 he was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). 1972 to 1973 he was chairman of the British Tunnelling Society. He became a Fellow of the Imperial College ( 1955 to 1975 he was one of the Governors ) and 1952 of the City and Guilds of London Institute 1968. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1968. In 1970 he became an honorary doctorate from the University London.

He was married in 1927 with Sophie Helen Blair, the daughter of the painter Edmund Blair Leighton, and had with her two sons and a daughter.