Direct by Design
Obituary: John Bartlett, 1927 – 2021
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s a civil engineer and student of law, underground engineering was at the heart of John Bartlett’s long career. With degrees in both disciplines, his career spanned more than six decades during which time his direction and energy led to transformation of tunnelling excavation technology, design criteria and contractual management. Born in London in 1927, Bartlett died on 17 November 2021, aged 94.
Jan 2022
He first worked on the Dartford highway tunnel under the River Thames to the east of London in the 1950s with the John Mowlem construction team. Then, with Mott, Hay and Anderson, he was involved on the design of the early underground sections of the Toronto Metro in Canada and was the project engineer responsible for design and excavation of the Victoria Line of the London Underground system in the 1960s.
In the 1980s, when Mott MacDonald After starting his underground civil was engaged as the principal design engineering career with construction engineer for the UK side of the Channel contractor John Mowlem, he joined John Bartlett 1927 - 2021 Tunnel undersea rail link between the UK consulting engineering firm Mott, Hay and France, he was principal designer and Anderson in 1957, and stayed with the company, now for the scheme and then principal design consultant for all Mott MacDonald, until his retirement as Chairman and civil and geotechnical engineering on the UK section. Senior Partner in 1988. In 1978, Bartlett was elected a fellow of the Fellowship Most famed is the invention by Bartlett in the 1960s of (now the Royal Academy) of Engineering and, like many the first tunnelling machine system to deal successfully tunnelling engineers before and since, was appointed with soft, non-coshesive, water bearing soils using President in 1982 of the ICE, Institution of Civil Engineers. bentonite as a support and material conveyancing Always a tunnelling and underground infrastructure design method, avoiding the application of a compressed air engineer at heart, Bartlett was a founder member in 1971 of working environment, an invention which he patented in 1964 and for which he was awarded the Sir Frank Portrait of John Vernon Bartlett as ICE President in 1982 Whittle Medal in 2018, the highest accolade of the Royal Academy of Engineering. John Bartlett CBE FREng receiving his Sir Frank Whittle Medal award in 2018 from then Royal Academy of Engineering President Dame Ann Dowling
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