Sir Harold Harding is not only well known in the tunnelling industry, but was also a founding member of the British Tunnelling Society. This biography includes additional chapters by his granddaughter, Amanda Davey and describes his work, including that with both Mowlem and Soil Mechanics, and is set around some of the major construction and tunnelling projects of the time, including the Channel Tunnel. Written in various sections through his career, by date, by event and by project, it is a pleasurable and fascinating read that will keep the reader enthralled throughout. Indeed, in his forward, Douglas Parkes includes a quote "send him to me and I will put him down a hole" as a typical Hardingism. This resonated with me, for as a young graduate engineer at Grain Power Station I too had to look "down a hole" on the instruction of the very experienced and thoroughly in charge Senior Resident Engineer before getting my wings. Perhaps they were made from the same mould.
The biography is exhaustive in detail and extensive in wisdom. The people Harding engages with equate to the telephone directory of the great and good of the industry at the time and this may prove of interest to today’s graduate and technician, as the names of some of the companies quoted in this book have disappeared, such as Kinnear Moodie, John Mowlem and Company, Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, Sir William Halcrow and Partners to name but a few.
In the first chapter, Harding describes how not even lectures in Structures from Sir Ralph Freeman and Oscar Faber, could not allow him to detect a spark of structural genius in him. However Harding advises that as his life developed, "it was seldom called into use and gradually eroded away from lack of exercise".
Next is a section of Harding’s recollections at the start of his career relating to the London Underground tunnels in the 1920s, including a passage on the phenomenon of the "greasy backs" which were encountered in the London Clay and seen to be a threat to the tunnelling at Mornington Crescent.
The book covers Harding’s work at John Mowlem and Company describing the inner workings of a contractor as having "a chief engineer to be the equivalent of an Admiral and each separate contract would be a ship individually captained by a man known as the agent". This naval analogy is an interesting approach to organisation and management. Harding’s own views on the industry, and his comment on modern large firms, the plethora of staff and the smoke screen of control, become evident.
There are numerous entertaining anecdotes within the text, including that of the infamous "Bumper" Harris. Harding worked on Mornington Crescent Station where the junction chambers were supervised by "Bumper" Harris who had lost a leg at Waterloo Station while building the Bakerloo Line. In 1977 a question in a BBC Mastermind programme produced the answer that "Bumper" Harris was the man with a wooden leg who kept traversing the first-ever escalator at Earls Court, to encourage the nervous.
Another anecdote relates to Harding’s work as a Company Director and the need to intervene for the betterment of a project, such as in Oban, where Harding’s telephone call is put through to the Senior Partner of Halcrow in order to insist on the introduction of steel arch ribs to support the tunnel to advance the works.
This suggestion is described as being met with reasoned acceptance, although one wonders if the "by-passed Resident Engineer" might have seen it all a little differently. By now a military analogy has been introduced to replace the previous naval approach. With the "troops" moving from job to job, directors become generals and the engineers are the officers ably assisted by foremen and gangers as NCO’s.
Harding’s overseas trips are just as enlightening, a memorable one being with the Resident Engineer from Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners at Owen Falls Dam to deal with materials shortages in Uganda at the time. This was written up in the proceedings of the ICE. I was once shown a reinforcement detail of the headhouse where rails (for the rail track) had been used in a column in lieu of reinforcement.
Even when Harding leaves Mowlem, the work continued to follow him and previous contacts provided gainful employment.
One such example is when Vernon Robertson, a partner at Halcrow asks "can you possibly visit Bombay on our behalf in October, as we are very stretched?"
The later chapters describe Harding’s work in various arbitration cases and the Aberfan tribunal, with the book concluding with Harding’s involvement in the setting up of the BTS. In conclusion, this is very worthwhile read and whether you are a tunnel, a civil or structural engineer, there is something for all in this impressive history of one of the industry greats.
