Warren, William Henry (1852 - 1926)

Summary

William Warren was a leading engineer in New South Wales, with a considerable reputation in engineering education and in professional organisations. In 1882 he joined the Department of Physics of the University of Sydney as Lecturer in engineering, being Challis Professor of Engineering from 1890 to 1925. His efforts to build up engineering teaching resulted in the establishment of a 4-year course in 1900. He had a distinguished publications record, which included the books Engineering construction in iron, steel and timber (1894, 3rd ed. 1921) and Strength, elasticity and other properties of New South Wales hardwood timbers (1911). Warren serves as Dean of the Faculties of Science and Engineering, and as chairman of the University's Professorial Board. For many years he was consulting engineering to New South Wales Government, being involved in a number of inquiries including those into railway bridges (1885 - 1886) and Baldwin locomotives (1892 - 1893). As inaugural President of the Institute of Engineers, Australia, Warren was a strong advocate for the registration of engineers with the Institute as the qualifying body, and a code of ethics. The W. H. Warren Medal, awarded by the Institution since 1926, is named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

4 Dec 1877

Career event - Associate Member (AssocMInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1880

Life event - Migrated to New South Wales

1881

Career position - Teacher of applied mechanics, Sydney Technological College

1882 - 1884

Career position - Lecturer in engineering, Department of Physics, University of Sydney

1883 - ?

Career position - Member, Royal Society of New South Wales

1884 - 1890

Career position - Professor of Engineering, University of Sydney

8 Feb 1887

Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London

1888

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1890

Career position - President, Section H (Engineering and Architecture), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1890 - 1925

Career position - Challis Professor of Engineering, University of Sydney

1892

Career position - President, Section I (Sanitary Science and Hygiene), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1892

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1899

Taxonomy event - Collector of a syntype of Eucalyptus dawsonii R.T.Baker

1902

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1908 - ?

Career position - Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney

1912

Award - Honorary LL.D. Degree, University of Glasgow

1913

Award - LLD honoris causa, University of Glasgow

1914

Career position - Local Secretary for Sydney, Section G (Engineering), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting

1919

Career event - Foundation Associate Member (AMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1919 - 1920

Career position - Foundation President, Institution of Engineers, Australia

1920 - 1926

Career event - Member (MIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia

1923

Career position - President, Section H (Engineering and Architecture), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1923

Award - Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal - Career Achievement Award in Engineering, Institution of Engineers Australia

Related entries

Archival resources

University of Sydney, Archives

• William Henry Warren - Records, 1844 - 1922, P 149; University of Sydney, Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Book Sections

• Corbett, Arthur; Pugh, Ann, 'Warren, William Henry (1852-1926)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 356-357. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060382b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Dwyer, M. R., 'Engineers' Papers: An Undervalued Historical Source', in Fifth National Conference on Engineering Heritage 1990: Interpreting Engineering Heritage; Preprints of Papers (Perth, Western Australia: Institution of Engineers, Australia, Western Australian Division, 1990), pp. 29-34.. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.623644955225119. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Professor W. H. Warren - First president of the Institution of Engineers of Australia', Commonwealth Engineer, 7 (4) (1919), 98. Details
• 'Memoirs', Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 7 (1926), 673-687, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.865124150476451. pp.685-687. Details
• 'Warren: Man of vision [Diamond Jubilee feature article]', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 51 (20) (1979), 18-20. Details
• 'First members of institution [Diamond Jubilee feature article]', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 51 (20) (1979), 69. 'Registered member number 1'. Details
• Institution of Engineers Australia, 'Fifth Annual General Meeting [March 1925] and Fifth Annual Report [1924]', Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 5 (1924), xiv-xliii, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.861751582678717. 'Prizes - The first award (1923) of the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal, "for a notable contribution to the Science and/or Practice of Engineering in the Commonwealth of Australia, representing the life work of an Engineer" was made to Professor W H Warren, First President of the Institution', p.xxx. Details
• Warren, W. H., 'The history of civil engineering in New South Wales', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1889), 590-648, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813682. Details
• Warren, W. H., 'The design of riveted joints in girders', Journal and abstract of proceedings of the Sydney University Engineering Society, 8 (1903), 29-49, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SUES/article/view/2035. Details
• Warren, W. H., 'Irrigation in India and Egypt', Commonwealth Engineer, 1 (4) (1913), 126-128. Details
• Warren, W. H.; Dare, H. H., 'The determination of working stresses for bridges', Journal and abstract of proceedings of the Sydney University Engineering Society, 6 (1901), 41-56, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SUES/article/view/2015. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/21714505. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q8012205. Details
• 'Obituary. William Henry Warren. 1852-1926.', Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Civil Engineers, https://doi.org/10.1680/imotp.1927.14139. Details
• Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 4059, 1877', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
• 'Warren, W H (1852-1926)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-480263. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Warren, William Henry', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000866p.htm. Details

See also

• 'P. N. Russell Memorial Medal [List of recipients 1923 - 1931]', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 3 (1931), 445. Details
• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_w.html. Details
• Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2019), 136 pp. 'Striving for Excellence - William Warren' p.53. Details
• Gourlay, Michael R., 'Warren Memorial Prize and W.H. Warren Award', Australian Civil Engineering Transactions, 40 (1998), 29-42, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.207993579178317. Details
• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Ludlow, Christa; Bowie, Ian; Neville, Pamela, 'Chapter 15: Engineering education in Sydney' in Sydney: from settlement to city: an engineering history of Sydney, Don Fraser, ed. (Crows Nest, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 1989), pp. 285-298. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details