{{Short description|English engineer, astronomer and musician}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}} {{Use British English|date=April 2018}} '''William Pole''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE|MICE}} (22 April 1814{{snd}}30 December 1900) was an English engineer, astronomer, musician and an authority on [[Whist]].
==Life== He was born in [[Birmingham]] on 22 April 1814, the son of Thomas Pole.
Pole was apprenticed as an engineer to Charles H. Capper in Birmingham around 1828.<ref name=fellows>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=12 January 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> He then went to [[India]] in 1844 as professor of engineering at [[Elphinstone College]], [[Bombay]], where he had organized a course of instruction for Indian students; his health obliged him to return to England in 1848. For the next ten years he worked in London under [[James Simpson (engineer)|James Simpson]] and [[James Meadows Rendel (engineer)|James Meadows Rendel]], and was appointed in 1859 to the chair of civil engineering at [[University College, London]]. With official work from the government, he served on committees which considered the application of armour to ships and fortifications (1861–1864), and the comparative advantages of [[Whitworth and Armstrong gun]]s (1863–1865).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Pole was secretary to the [[Royal Commission on Railways]] (1865–1867), the [[Duke of Richmond]]'s Commission on London Water (1867–1869), also taking part in the subsequent proceedings for establishing a constant supply, the [[Royal Commission]] on the Disposal of London Sewage (1882–1884), and the departmental committee on the science museums at [[South Kensington]] in 1885. In 1871 he was employed by the War Office to report on the [[Martini-Henry rifle]], and in the same year was appointed consulting engineer in London to the Japanese government, a position through which he exercised considerable influence on the development of the Japanese railway system. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1861, in recognition of some investigations on [[color-blindness]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Music was also one of his chief interests. At the age of twenty-two he was appointed [[organist]] of St Marks, North Audley Street in London, in open competition, the next selected candidate being Dr E. J. Hopkins (1818–1901), who subsequently was for fifty years organist of the [[Temple Church]]. He took the degree of [[Bachelor of Music]] at [[Oxford]] in 1860, proceeding to his doctors degree in 1867, and in 1879 published his ''Philosophy of Music''. He was largely concerned in the institution of musical degrees by the [[University of London]] in 1877, and for many years acted as one of the examiners. His mathematical tastes found congenial occupation in the study of whist, and as a contemporary to [[Henry Jones (writer)|Cavendish]], he was an exponent of the scientific principles and history of the game. His literary work included treatises on the [[steam engine]] and on iron construction, biographical studies of famous engineers, including [[Robert Stephenson]] and [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]], Sir [[William Fairbairn]] and Sir [[Carl Wilhelm Siemens|William Siemens]], several books on musical subjects and on [[whist]], and many papers for reviews and scientific periodicals.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
In 1877 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. His proposers were all civil engineers: [[David Stevenson (engineer)|David Stevenson]], Sir [[John Hawkshaw]], [[James Leslie (engineer)|James Leslie]] and [[Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin]].<ref name=fellows/>
He died at home, 9 Stanhope Place near [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] in [[London]] on 30 December 1900.<ref name=fellows/>
==Family== Pole married Matilda Gauntlett (died 1900), daughter of [[Henry Gauntlett (priest)|Henry Gauntlett]].{{sfn|Pollard|1896}} Their son, also William Pole but changing his name to [[William Poel]] (1852–1934), became known as an actor and writer, and for his studies in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearian]] drama and in connection with the [[Elizabethan Stage Society]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
==Published works== * {{cite book |author-mask=1 |last = Pole |first = William |author-link = William Pole |title = Quarterly Review |date = January 1871 }} Article on the evolution of Whist. * {{cite book |author-mask=1 |last = Pole |first = William |author-link = William Pole |title = The Theory of the Modern Scientific Game of Whist... (Cover and spine title: Pole on Whist) |publisher = Longmans, Green, and Co. (London), 7th Edition, 1874, 112 pages. |year = 1874 }} / G.W. Carleton & Co. Publishers (London) 1879, 144 pages. / Longmans, Green, and Co. (London), 14th Edition, 1883, 112 pages. / G.W. Carleton & Co. Publishers (London) 1884, 114 pages. / Frederick A. Stokes (New York), 1887, 136 pages. / 1889, 128 pages. * {{cite book |author-mask=1 |last = Pole |first = William |author-link = William Pole |title = The Philosophy of Whist: An Essay on the Scientific and Intellectual Aspects of the Modern Game. (Spine Title: Pole on Whist) |publisher = Thos. De La Rue & Co. (London), 218 pages |year = 1884 }} * {{cite book |author-mask=1 |last = Pole |first = William |author-link = William Pole |title = The Evolution of Whist |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924031248556 |publisher = Longmans, Green, and Co. (New York, London), 269 pages |year = 1895 }}<ref>[https://archive.org/details/evolutionofwhist00pole The Evolution of Whist]</ref> * {{cite book |author-mask=1 |last = Pole |first = William |author-link = William Pole |title = Whist |publisher = George Bell & Sons (London, New York), 104 pages. |year = 1905 }}
==References== {{reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle = Pole, William|volume=21|page=976}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle = Pole, William (1561-1635) |volume=46|first=Albert Frederick|last= Pollard}} *{{cite ODNB|first=Stanley|last=Smith|title=Pole, William (1814–1900)|id=22463}}
==External links== {{wikisource author-inline}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pole, William}} [[Category:1814 births]] [[Category:1900 deaths]] [[Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands]] [[Category:19th-century English engineers]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]]