Past Masters – Civil Engineers Who Contributed to the Growth and Wealth of South Africa

This is the first in a series of reprints of interesting articles from SAICE Civil Engineering Magazine, which are being made available for ease of reference. The first Past Masters series, written mainly by Graham Ross and Tony Murray, was published between 2006 and 2010 and invoked a lot of interest. Some 23 brief biographies of 19th century engineers, the founders of our profession in South Africa, were represented. A new series which will deal mainly with the profession up to 1950 has recently appeared. This booklet includes the complete original series, edited and with more pictures added, and a few articles from the current series which deal with contemporaries of the first group. Included are brief biographies of luminaries such as Charles Michell, the Bains and Thomas Stewart as well as some lesser known but important contributors to our engineering heritage. All interested in the history and background of the profession will find this volume fascinating and a valuable source of reference.