Guy Anson Maunsell was the British civil engineer responsible for the design of the I Naval Sea Forts and Army Forts used by the United Kingdom for the defence of the Thames and Mersey estuaries.
Background
Maunsell was born in 1884 in Srinagar, Kashmir in British India, one of three children of a military family. His father, Edward Henry Maunsell (1837-1913) was of Anglo-Irish descent, and was a captain in the 5th Dragoon Guards and 15th Hussars. His mother, Rosalie Harriet Anson (1852-1922), was born in Guernsey.
The couple had married in Bombay Cathedral in 1878.
Education
Young Guy was sent to school in England at Eastbourne College between 1897 and 1903, and studied civil engineering at the Central Institution of the City & Guilds of London Institute, South Kensington. Although he graduated with First Class Honours in 1906, he didn"t find immediate employment and travelled the country making watercolour paintings.
Career
He was distantly related to General Sir Frederick Richard Maunsell (1828-1916) of the Royal Bengal Engineers. The following year, he became an assistant to Swiss engineer Adrien Palaz (1863-1930), professor of Industrial Electricity at the University of Lausanne, where he learned the latest techniques associated with reinforced concrete. In 1909 he secured a post at Easton Gibb & Son who were engaged in the construction of the Rosyth Dockyard.
In 1917, Maunsell was conscripted as a commissioned officer in the Royal Engineers and spent a year on the Western Front.
Recalled to England, he worked as chief engineer at John Ver Mehr"s yard in Shoreham, in the construction of concrete tugs and barges called the Shoreham Creteships. He was also involved in the concrete and steel towers for the Admiralty M-North Scheme, which were intended to close the Strait of Dover to U-boats.
A single tower survived today as the Nab Tower lighthouse. In 1955 he founded the firm of G Maunsell & Partners in the United Kingdom which pioneered the use of prestressed concrete in major bridges.
The Hammersmith Flyover, completed in 1961, made revolutionary use of this new construction method and many more structures followed.
The firm expanded to Australia, Hong Kong and the Middle East and in time became part of the United States-based Architecture, Engineering, Consultancy, Operations & Maintenance Group. Maunsell is best known for his innovative, practical maritime engineering and pioneering the development of prestressed concrete in the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong. His view was always that the interests of a client would be best served by an integrated approach to design and construction.
He died in Ireland in 1961.