{{Short description|English civil engineer (1807–1893)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox engineer |image = ThomasHawksley.JPG |image_size = |caption = Thomas Hawksley |name = Thomas Hawksley |birth_date = {{Birth date|1807|7|12|df=y}} |birth_place = [[Arnold, Nottinghamshire|Arnold]], Nottinghamshire |death_date = {{Death date and age|1893|9|23|1807|7|12|df=y}} |death_place = [[Kensington]], London |education = Self-taught from age 15 |spouse = |parents = John Hawksley and Sarah Thompson |children = [[Charles Hawksley]] |discipline = [[Civil engineering]] |institutions = [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] (president), [[Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers]] (president), [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] |practice_name = |significant_projects = [[Lindley Wood Reservoir|Lindley Wood]], [[Swinsty Reservoir|Swinsty]] and [[Fewston Reservoir|Fewston]] reservoirs |significant_design = |significant_advance = |significant_awards = }}
'''Thomas Hawksley''' ({{Birth date|1807|7|12|df=y}} – {{Death date|1893|9|23|df=y}}) was an English [[civil engineer]] of the 19th century, particularly associated with early [[water supply]] and [[coal gas]] engineering projects. Hawksley was, with [[John Frederick Bateman]], the leading British water engineer of the nineteenth century and was personally responsible for upwards of 150 water-supply schemes, in the British Isles and overseas.<ref name="HawksBio">[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12691 Hawksley, Thomas], [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]</ref>
==Biography== The son of John Hawksley and Sarah Thompson and born in Arnot Hill House, [[Arnold, Nottinghamshire|Arnold]], near [[Nottingham]] on {{Birth date|1807|7|12|df=y}},<ref name="imeche">{{cite web|url=http://presidentschoice.imeche.org.uk/thomashaksleyinfo.htm|title=Thomas Hawksley|publisher=Institution of Mechanical Engineers|url-status=dead|access-date=21 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011115644/http://presidentschoice.imeche.org.uk/thomashaksleyinfo.htm|archive-date=11 October 2008}}</ref> Hawksley was largely self-taught from the age of 15 onwards—despite his education at [[Nottingham High School]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nottinghampost.com/best-Old-boys-learnt-ropes-historic-High-School/story-19282550-detail/story.html |title=Five of the best: Old boys who learnt the ropes at historic High School | Nottingham Post |accessdate=2014-02-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203054925/http://www.nottinghampost.com/best-Old-boys-learnt-ropes-historic-High-School/story-19282550-detail/story.html |archivedate=3 February 2014}}</ref>—having at that point become articled to a local firm of architects under the supervision of [[Edward Staveley]] that also undertook a variety of water-related engineering projects.
Locally, he remains particularly associated with schemes in his home county. He was engineer to the [[Nottingham Corporation Gas Department#Nottingham Gas Light and Coke Company|Nottingham Gas Light and Coke Company]] and [[City of Nottingham Water Department|Nottingham Waterworks Company]] for more than half a century, having, early in his career, completed the Trent Bridge waterworks (1831). This scheme delivered Britain's first high pressure 'constant supply', preventing contamination entering the supply of clean water mains.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.papplewickpumpingstation.co.uk/nottswh1.htm|title=Nottingham Water Supply – history|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809211327/http://www.papplewickpumpingstation.co.uk/nottswh1.htm|archivedate=9 August 2007}}</ref>
Hawksley first rose to national prominence at the time of the [[Health of Towns Association|health of towns inquiry]] in 1844. His advocacy of a constant supply of water to consumers brought him immediate acclaim. [[Edwin Chadwick]] adopted Hawksley as an ally for a time, but Hawksley adopted a more pragmatic approach and was prepared to act for others' undertakings.<ref name="HawksBio"/> This approach led him to be appointed to many major water supply projects across England, including schemes for [[Liverpool]], [[Sheffield]], [[Leicester]], [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], [[Leeds]], [[Derby, England|Derby]], [[Darlington]], [[Oxford]], [[Cambridge]], [[Sunderland, Tyne and Wear|Sunderland]], [[Wakefield]] and [[Northampton]]. He also undertook drainage projects, including schemes for [[Birmingham]], [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] and [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]].
In 1852, Hawksley set up his own engineering practice in Westminster, London. He was the first president of the [[Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.igem.org.uk/company/history.asp|title=IGEM History}}</ref> (serving for three years from 1863), a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1727|title=Royal Society list of fellows}}</ref> and was elected President of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] in 1871 (a post his son [[Charles Hawksley|Charles]] later occupied in 1901).<ref name="Civils"> {{Cite book | first = Garth | last = Watson| title = The Civils | publisher=London: Thomas Telford Ltd | page = 251 | year = 1988 | isbn = 0-7277-0392-7 }}</ref>
[[File:Thomas Hawksley Grave Brookwood.jpg|thumb|160px|left|Hawksley's grave in [[Brookwood Cemetery]]]]
Between 1869 and 1879, Hawksley acted as consultant to the construction of [[Lindley Wood Reservoir|Lindley Wood]], [[Swinsty Reservoir|Swinsty]] and [[Fewston Reservoir|Fewston]] reservoirs for [[Leeds Corporation Waterworks]].<ref name="DALES">{{cite book|last=Bowtell |first=Harold D.| title=Lesser Railways of the Yorkshire Dales and the Dam Builders in the Age of Steam| publisher=Plateway Press| year=1991| isbn=1-871980-09-7}}</ref> At [[Tunstall Reservoir]] in 1876, and at [[Cowm Reservoir]] in 1877–78, he is credited with the first two uses of [[pressure grouting]] to control water leakage under an embankment dam.<ref name="HawksBio"/><ref>Robert William Rennison, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Bv2BrOMo8cIC&pg=PA81& Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England], p.81</ref><ref>A. Clive Houlsby, ''Construction and Design of Cement Grouting; A Guide to Grouting in Rock Foundations'' [[John Wiley & Sons]], 1990, {{ISBN|0-471-51629-5}}</ref><ref>[[Rudolph Glossop]], ''The Invention and Development of Injection processes Part II: 1850-1960'', [[British Geotechnical Association#History|Geotechnique]], Vol. 11, 4, December 1961, p.255-279.</ref> [[Rudolph Glossop|Glossop]] comments, "This procedure of rock grouting, which is now standard practice in dam construction, was an invention of the greatest importance to engineering practice, but its adoption by civil engineers was slow."<ref>Rudolph Glossop, p.259</ref>
Hawksley died in [[Kensington]], London in 1893<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12691 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]. Oxforddnb.com. Retrieved on 27 August 2011.</ref> and is buried in his family plot at [[Brookwood Cemetery]], Surrey. In December 2007 a granite memorial was placed over his previously unmarked grave.<ref>Cemetery, Brookwood. (10 December 2007) [https://brookwoodcemetery.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-memorial-to-thomas-hawksley.html Brookwood Cemetery press release] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708030047/http://brookwoodcemetery.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-memorial-to-thomas-hawksley.html |date=8 July 2011 }}. Brookwoodcemetery.blogspot.com. Retrieved on 27 August 2011.</ref>
Thomas Hawksley was the first of four generations of eminent water engineers, having been followed into the profession by his son, [[Charles Hawksley]], grandson Kenneth Phipson Hawksley, and great grandson, Thomas Edwin Hawksley (died 1972). The Institution of Mechanical Engineers still holds an annual lecture in his memory.
A memorial to him was placed in a stone wall at [[Rivington]] in 2023, the memorial reads 'In memory of Thomas Hawksley FRS, Civil Engineer and Architect, of the Rivington Reservoir System build 1850 to 1857' the memorial features [[Freemasonry|masonic]] symbols.<ref name="memorial_stone">{{cite news |last1=Harrison |first1=Zach |title=Rivington is like a 'mini Lake District' - the history behind the popular area |url=https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/23656357.rivington-thomas-hawksley-commemorative-stone-unveiled/ |access-date=20 August 2023 |publisher=Bolton News |date=16 July 2023}}</ref>
== Bibliography == * Douet, J. (2023). ''The Architecture of Steam, Waterworks and the Victorian Sanitary Crisis''. Liverpool University Press. {{ISBN|9781802077537}}. * Uhler, B, ''et al''. (2018). ''Pure and Constant, The Life and Legacy of Thomas Hawksley 1807-1893''. Arima Publishing. {{ISBN|9781845493042}}.
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Hawksley, Thomas|volume=13|page=100}}
{{s-start}} {{s-npo|pro}} {{s-bef|before=[[Charles Blacker Vignoles]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[List of Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers|President]] of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] |years=December 1871 – December 1873}} {{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Elliot Harrison]]}} {{s-bef |before=[[Frederick Bramwell|Sir Frederick Bramwell]] }} {{s-ttl |title=[[President (corporate title)|President]] of the [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]] |years=1876–1877 }} {{s-aft |after=[[John Robinson (engineer)|John Robinson]] }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawksley, Thomas}} [[Category:1807 births]] [[Category:1893 deaths]] [[Category:People from Arnold, Nottinghamshire]] [[Category:English civil engineers]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers]] [[Category:Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers]] [[Category:Burials at Brookwood Cemetery]] [[Category:People educated at Nottingham High School]]