# Letitia Chitty > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Letitia_Chitty > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Letitia_Chitty.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Chitty > Source revision: 1338542207 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|English engineer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Letitia Chitty | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1897|07|15|df=y}} | birth_place = [Kensington](/source/Kensington), [London](/source/London), England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1982|09|29|1897|07|15|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = | alma_mater = Newnham College, Cambridge | occupation = Engineer | years_active = | known_for = Aeronautics | notable_works = }} '''Letitia Chitty''' (15 July 1897 – 29 September 1982) was an English engineer who became a respected structural analytical engineer, achieving several firsts for women engineers, including becoming the first female fellow of the [Royal Aeronautical Society](/source/Royal_Aeronautical_Society) and the second female recipient of the [Telford Medal](/source/Telford_Medal). == Early life == Born at 51 Campden House Road, Kensington, London, she was the eldest of four sisters and one brother. Her father Herbert Chitty (1863–1949) was a barrister and (from 1907) bursar of [Winchester College](/source/Winchester_College). Her mother was Mabel Agatha (née Bradby; 1865–1944). Her paternal grandfather was the judge Sir [Joseph William Chitty](/source/Joseph_William_Chitty) and her maternal grandfather was Canon [Edward Henry Bradby](/source/Edward_Bradby), the headmaster of [Haileybury College](/source/Haileybury_and_Imperial_Service_College). Her Bradby relatives included uncle [G. F. Bradby](/source/G._F._Bradby), author of ''The Lanchester Tradition'' (1919), and aunt [Barbara Bradby](/source/Barbara_Bradby) joint author of ''The Village Labourer'' (1911). Cousins included the poet [Anne Ridler](/source/Anne_Ridler).{{Cite ODNB|title=Ridler, Anne Barbara [née Bradby] (1912–2001), poet and writer|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-76404|access-date=2020-09-27|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/76404}} Her godmother was Violet Jex-Blake, niece of the suffragist and first female medical graduate in the UK, [Sophia Jex-Blake](/source/Sophia_Jex-Blake).{{Cite web |title=60: Letitia Chitty |url=http://www.magnificentwomen.co.uk/1/post/2019/07/60-letitia-chitty.html |access-date=29 September 2022 |website=Magnificent Women |language=en}} ==Education== Chitty was privately educated between 1903 and 1916, latterly at Kensington High School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70068|title=Chitty, Letitia (1897–1982), mathematician and civil engineer|website=www.oxforddnb.com|language=en|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.70068|access-date=2019-10-08|year=2018|last1=Barrett|first1=Anne|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }} She entered [Newnham College, Cambridge](/source/Newnham_College%2C_Cambridge) in 1916, taking the first part of the [Tripos](/source/Tripos). During [World War I](/source/World_War_I), as part of a British programme to identify the best female mathematics graduates and current students,{{Cite book|title=Magnificent women and their revolutionary machines.|last=HEALD, HENRIETTA.|date=2019|publisher=UNBOUND|isbn=978-1783526604|location=[Place of publication not identified]|oclc=1080083743}} she was selected for war work with [Alfred Pippard](/source/Alfred_Pippard) at the [Admiralty Air Department](/source/Admiralty_Air_Department) at age 19. After the war she returned to her studies, changed subject to engineering, and graduated with a titular degree from Newnham College with first class honours in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, 1921, the first woman to do so.{{Cite journal|date=1921|title=News of members|journal=The Woman Engineer |publisher=Women's Engineering Society|volume=1|issue=8}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/centenary/timeline/1930.shtml|title=Imperial College Timeline 1930s|date=2007|website=Imperial College|access-date=30 March 2016}}{{cite book|last1=Haines|first1=Catharine M.C.|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|date=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781576070901|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/61 61]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/61}} == Early career == Her early career focused on analysing the stresses of airframes, airships and [civil engineering](/source/civil_engineering) structures, initially with the Admiralty Air Department and then, after graduating, at the [Air Ministry](/source/Air_Ministry) with [Richard Southwell](/source/Richard_V._Southwell) and Alfred Pippard. ===Work with Tarrant Tabor=== At the end of the war, W. G. Tarrant, who was previously a timber merchant, built a massive bomber: the [Tarrant Tabor](/source/Tarrant_Tabor). The original [biplane](/source/biplane) design had to be altered to [triplane](/source/triplane) to accommodate more engines, and the Admiralty Air Department was asked to check its structural strength. Chitty was given this task. In her own words:
"Mr. Tarrant was an inspired timber merchant who dreamed of a super-[Camel](/source/Sopwith_Camel). It hadn't a chance. It was too big, too heavy - that wasn't its fault, but Grade A spruce had by now run out and it had to be built of American white wood (tulip). In my language, 3,500 instead of 5,500 lb/sq in."{{Cite book |last=Gunston |first=Bill |title=Giants of the Sky: Biggest Aeroplanes of All Time |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |year=1991 |isbn=9781852602581 |edition=1st |pages=61-2}}
The plane pitched over during its first take-off at the [Royal Aircraft Establishment](/source/Royal_Aircraft_Establishment), [Farnborough](/source/Farnborough_Airport) on 26 May 1919, killing both pilots and seriously injuring the other six people on board. ==Later career== thumb|Imperial College, London, where Chitty worked. Chitty moved to [Imperial College](/source/Imperial_College_London) in 1934 where she remained for the rest of her career, initially specialising in structural stresses in aircraft. During the 1930s, she was part of a group which analysed the crash of the airship [R38](/source/R38-class_airship), and published various Air Ministry papers on stresses and strains on airship structures. She was an early member of the [Women's Engineering Society](/source/Women's_Engineering_Society). Her [World War II](/source/World_War_II) work included research into stresses in [submarine](/source/submarine) hulls under shell attack, extensible cables and pulley blocks for [barrage balloons](/source/barrage_balloons), for the Director of Scientific Research of the [Admiralty](/source/British_Admiralty) and the [Ministry of Supply](/source/Ministry_of_Supply). Later research interests included arches and arch dams - in particular, the [Dukan Dam](/source/Dukan_Dam) in Iraq - and she contributed to an international symposium on arched dams in 1968. Initially an Imperial College research assistant, Chitty became a lecturer in 1937, and retired in 1962. She was the first female Fellow of the [Royal Aeronautical Society](/source/Royal_Aeronautical_Society) (FRAeS), the third female Corporate Member of the [Institution of Civil Engineers](/source/Institution_of_Civil_Engineers) and the first woman to be appointed to an ICE technical committee, in 1958. She was awarded four [Telford Premium](/source/Telford_Premium) medals for papers written with Pippard, and in 1969 became the first woman to receive the Telford Gold Medal. She travelled widely and published a book, "Abroad. An alphabet of Flowers", in 1948, with her own drawings and notes about her holidays.{{Cite book|title=Abroad: an alphabet of flowers|last=Chitty|first=Letitia|year=1948|asin=B000WTJYII}} In her will, she left a bequest to Imperial College, which named its Library reading room after her.{{cite web|title=Benefactor Profile: Letitia Chitty (1897-1982)|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/civil-engineering/about-us/library/benefactor-profile-letitia-chitty-1897-1982/|website=Imperial College, London|access-date=31 March 2016}} Imperial College also presents a Letitia Chitty Centenary Memorial Prize, while Newnham College has presented a 'Letitia Chitty Award for Engineering'. == References == {{Reflist}} == External links == * [http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ImageCropToolT4/imageTool/uploaded-images/Chitty--tojpeg_1425399593895_x2.jpg Photo of Letitia Chitty from http://www.imperial.ac.uk] * [http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Dice/2996/tarrant-tabor.jpg Photo of the Tarrant Tabor] * Blog discussion about the Tarrant Tabor http://rec.aviation.military.narkive.com/CpWMia8v/first-us-army-bomber {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Chitty, Letitia}} Category:British aeronautical engineers Category:20th-century English women engineers Category:20th-century English engineers Category:Women's Engineering Society Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:People from Kensington Category:1897 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Engineers from London --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Letitia Chitty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Chitty) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letitia_Chitty?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.