"British Civil Engineer" George Buchanan Hand Signed 5X5 B&W Photo For Sale

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"British Civil Engineer" George Buchanan Hand Signed 5X5 B&W Photo:
$279.99

Up for sale "British Civil Engineer" George Buchanan Hand Signed 5X5 B&W Photo.

ES-4410

Sir George Cunningham Buchanan KCIE (20 April 1865 –

14 April 1940) was a British civil engineer particularly associated with harbour works in Burma, Iraq and Bombay, during the early years of the 20th century. Buchanan

first came to prominence in 1905 when he collaborated with Patrick Meik on designs for the Rangoon River training works in Burma;

Meik was consulting engineer and Buchanan was chief engineer. The project

reclaimed some 1.2 km² of land behind a wall of rubble 2 miles

(3.2 km) long and 230 feet (70 m) wide. At the start of the First World War in 1914, Buchanan was working in India,

until called to support the British Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force at Basra in Mesopotamia (now part of modern-day Iraq)

with advice on improving shipping channels into the port. After many delays, he

was finally able to design and supervise construction of a line of wharves

complete with cranes, sheds, roads and railway lines. In 1917, Buchanan was

promoted to the rank of brigadier general and

was knighted. However, he had already distanced himself from his compatriots by

his reputation for egotism and outspokenness, and jealousy of his enormous

salary as Director-General of Port Administration and River Conservancy. His

military counterpart, General MacMunn, wrote that he: "irritated everyone

who came across him or worked for him". Buchanan later wrote a critical

book about the military campaign and his own part in turning it around, The

Tragedy of Mesopotamia (1938). Buchanan was a member of the Indian

Munitions Board from 1917 – 1919. In 1920, working with Patrick’s brother Charles Meik in a firm renamed CS Meik and Buchanan in

1920, Buchanan was invited to Bombay to investigate a potential land reclamation

project, the Bombay Backbay reclamation.

The costs of the huge and ambitious scheme, and the time it would take to

complete, soon escalated out of control, and a subsequent enquiry blamed Sir

George (the project became known as Lloyd’s Folly, after Sir George Lloyd,

then governor of Bombay).

At the same time, Sir George Buchanan was alleged to have

"criticised and condemned the proposals of another engineer and had

offered his services uninvited" – an action which saw him expelled from the

British Institution of Civil

Engineers. His later career was largely focused overseas, notably

in Australia where he prepared an influential report on the

country's ports in 1926 at the request of the Federal Government. His

ignominious departure from UK engineering circles meant that the name

'Buchanan' had to be deleted from the company name in 1923 when the firm became

CS Meik and Halcrow (William Halcrow had

been a partner in the firm from the previous year and went on to take a more

controlling interest in what became the Halcrow Group). Sir

George’s nephew, Sir Colin Buchanan was

a pioneer in transport planning.  

"British Civil Engineer" George Buchanan Hand Signed 5X5 B&W Photo

$279.99

CIVIL WAR OFFICER SILK SASH LOT OF 3 PIECES -CAVALRY- AMERICAN BRITISH CIVIL WAR

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Brand New Grey British Civil War General Wool Jacket Men Long Coat / Jacket

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