Gilbert Roberts
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18 February 1899
Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Sir Gilbert Roberts | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gilbert Roberts 18 February 1899 |
| Died | 1 January 1978 (aged 78) |
| Awards | Royal Medal (1968) Fellow of the Royal Society[1] |
Sir Gilbert Roberts (18 February 1899 – 1 January 1978) was a British civil engineer who designed many famous bridges worldwide.[1]
Roberts was born in Hampstead, north London, to Henry William Roberts, a pharmacist, and was educated at Bromley High School.[1] He then went to Gresham College to study engineering but on the outbreak of WWI he joined the Royal Flying Corps.
Career
After being shot in the knee in 1918 on a bombing raid, Roberts was invalided back to England and awarded an Army Scholarship to attend City and Guilds College of Imperial College, where he obtained his degree in 1923. He became a civil engineer and worked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) and Otto Beit suspension bridge (1938) across the Zambezi River.
As a senior partner with the British firm Freeman Fox & Partners he designed, in collaboration with William Brown, the Volta River Bridge (1957), the Auckland Harbour Bridge (1959–71), the Forth Road Bridge (1964), the Severn Bridge (1966), the Bosphorus Bridge (1973) and the Humber Bridge (1981). Roberts was also the designer of the ill-fated West Gate Bridge in Melbourne which collapsed on October 15, 1970, killing 35 workers and injuring 18 others.
