Harold Harding

For those of a similar name, see Harold Hardinge and Harry Harding (disambiguation).

Harold Harding
Born6 January 1900
Wandsworth, London
Died27 March 1986(1986-03-27) (aged 86)
Topsham, Devon
NationalityEnglish
EducationCity and Guilds College
OccupationEngineer
SpouseSophie Blair Leighton
Children3
Engineering career
DisciplineCivil
InstitutionsInstitution of Civil Engineers (president),
British Tunnelling Society (chairman)
Fellowship of Engineering (fellow)
City and Guilds of London Institute (fellow)
Imperial College London (fellow)
Practice nameMowlem, Soil Mechanics Ltd
ProjectsPiccadilly Circus tube station, Central line

Sir Harold John Boyer Harding (6 January 1900 – 27 March 1986) was a British civil engineer.[1] Harding was educated at Christ's Hospital and the City and Guilds College (part of Imperial College London), interrupting his studies 1918–19 with a one-year period spent as a cadet in the Officers' Training Corps. Following graduation Harding worked for Mowlem where he specialised in tunnelling work for London Underground including the reconstruction of Piccadilly Circus tube station and the expansion of the Central line. In the 1930s he and Mowlem were instrumental in introducing geotechnical processes to the UK.[2]

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Harding was placed in charge of defence and emergency repair of underground services in London. He built pre-cast concrete petrol barges and eight of the Mulberry Harbour segments used in the Normandy Landings. He was also a founding director of Soil Mechanics Ltd, a subsidiary of Mowlem dedicated to work in geotechnics. After the war Harding was involved with investigations into the feasibility of construction of a Channel Tunnel and sat on the tribunal investigating the Aberfan disaster of 1966.

Harding was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was the founding chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute and fellow of Imperial College. He was also a founder fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering and governor of three separate academic institutions: Westminster Technical College. Northampton Engineering College, and Imperial College. He received a knighthood in 1968.

  1. ^ Wood, Alan Muir (2004). "'Harding, Sir Harold John Boyer (1900–1986)'". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40053. Retrieved 7 June 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Davey, Amanda (2015). It's Warmer Down Below: the autobiography of Sir Harold Harding, 1900–1986. Sussex: Tilia Publishing UK. ISBN 978-0-9933965-0-2.