- John William Grover
John William Grover (
20 April ,1836 –23 August 1892 ), was an early English consulting civil engineer responsible for several notable buildings in London, and railway lines inEngland ,Wales ,Mexico andVenezuela . He was the inventor of thesplit washer .Early life
Grover was the only son of the rector of
Hitcham, Buckinghamshire . He was sent toMarlborough College and studied inGermany and under the engineer SirCharles Fox . He left to work for the railway engineerJohn Fowler , surveying routes inPortugal . He then joined theScience and Art Department , supervising and designing parts of theSouth Kensington Museum , the conservatory of theRoyal Horticultural Society and domes for the 1862Great Exhibition .Consulting career
He set up his own consulting business in London in 1862, working on railways and structures.His projects included:
* several English railways, including branches for Manchester and Milford, Hemel Hempstead,Westerham Valley Branch Line
* Welsh railways inMerionethshire andCarmarthenshire
* Mexican and continental railway surveys
*Venezuela n railways, notably surveying the mountain route fromLa Guaira toCaracas in 1872
*La Guaira ,Venezuela hydrographic survey for proposed harbour works and Los Roqueslighthouse
*Clevedon Pier ,Somersetshire
* theKingsland Bridge over theRiver Severn
* the roof of theRoyal Albert Hall , assisting Major-GeneralHenry Y. D. Scott , RELater in his career he designed waterworks and water supplies, specialising in chalk aquifers, designing supplies to service
London ,Westerham ,Newbury ,Wokingham ,Leatherhead ,Rickmansworth andUxbridge . He also designed water schemes atBridgend ,West Indies ,Egypt ,Austria ,Denmark ,Italy , andSwitzerland .In addition to being a member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers , his interest inAncient Roman artifacts led him to membership of theSociety of Antiquaries and theBritish Archaeological Association .He died at his home at
Clapham after a long illness, aged 56, and was buried atWest Norwood Cemetery .References
* Obituary,
The Times 31 Aug 1892
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11687, Biography by T. H. Beare, rev. Mike Chrimes accessed 13 Oct 2007] ,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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