Walter Bassett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
Toorak, Victoria, Australia
Sir Walter Eric Bassett | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 December 1892 Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 8 March 1978 (aged 85) Toorak, Victoria, Australia |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Service | Australian Army |
| Years of service | 1915–1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Unit | 5th Field Company, Australian Flying Corps |
| Battles / wars | Western Front, First World War |
| Awards | Military Cross, KBE |
| Other work | Engineer, Academic, Consultant |
Sir Walter Eric Bassett KBE, MC (19 December 1892 – 8 March 1978) was an Australian engineer, soldier and academic. He studied engineering at the University of Melbourne before joining the First Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. Bassett won the Military Cross for gallantry on the Western Front before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps. Wounded in the hip on 1 June 1917 Bassett was disabled for the remainder of his life. On his return to Australia he joined the faculty at his alma mater, lecturing in mechanical engineering and aerodynamics. Bassett arranged the construction of the first wind tunnel in Australia. He later helped establish aeronautical engineering courses in Sydney and, in 1958, joined Monash University as a lecturer and member of its council. Bassett received honorary doctorates from Monash and Melbourne.
Even during his early academic career Bassett maintained a private engineering practice, providing heating and ventilation consultancy services. His systems were installed in many prestigious buildings in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia. During the Second World War he was chairman of the Australian Army's Mechanisation Board and a member of the Commonwealth Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as well as carrying out works in war factories and military hospitals. Bassett's firm was highly active in the post-war years and he was knighted in 1959. Bassett retired in 1971, but continued to work on a consultancy basis until his death.
Bassett was born on 19 December 1892 in Hawthorn, Victoria, to Walter Bassett, a salesman, and Caroline née Loxton. His parents were both English-born. Bassett was educated at Wesley College and the University of Melbourne, from which he received a bachelor of engineering degree in 1916.[1]
Bassett joined the First Australian Imperial Force on 30 September 1915, for service in the First World War. He was posted to the 5th Field Company, an engineering unit. Bassett left Australia on 23 November, headed for Egypt. He was afterwards deployed to the Western Front. As a lieutenant, Bassett was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action during the night of 4–5 August 1915 at Pozières, France.[1] His medal citation records that Bassett constructed machine-gun emplacements in captured German trenches and, later, a communications trench while under heavy fire.[2]
On 19 April 1917 Bassett transferred to the Australian Flying Corps, serving with the Royal Air Force's No. 40 Squadron. He was wounded in the hip on 1 June 1917 and evacuated to England. Bassett's injury required him to use a walking stick for the remainder of his life. He was declared unfit for future service and his employment ceased on 28 January 1918.[1]
Academic career
Bassett returned to Melbourne and studied aeronautics. He joined the faculty of the University of Melbourne's engineering school in 1919, lecturing in mechanical engineering and aerodynamics. At Melbourne Bassett arranged the construction of the first wind tunnel in Australia.[1] He married the historian Marnie Bassett in a Methodist ceremony at the university rooms of her father, Sir David Orme Masson, on 25 January 1923. They had two sons and a daughter; the eldest son drowned during the Second World War.[1]
Bassett received a master of mechanical engineering degree from the University of Melbourne in 1927. Bassett received the university's Kernot Memorial Medal in 1948. Bassett also helped to establish aeronautical engineering degree courses in Sydney and helped establish the Aeronautical Research Laboratories at Melbourne in 1949. In 1958 he was appointed to the interim council of the Monash University, which was then under construction. He sat on its building committee and was much involved in its planning. Bassett was a member of its first formal council and served as an engineering lecturer until 1973. Bassett received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the university in 1970 and, one in laws from the University of Melbourne in 1974.[1]
