Harold Harding

Sir Harold John Boyer Harding (6 January 1900 – 27 March 1986) was a British civil engineer. Harding was educated at Christ's Hospital and the City and Guilds College (part of Imperial College London), interrupting his studies 1918–19 with a one-year period spent as a cadet in the Officers' Training Corps. Following graduation Harding worked for Mowlem where he specialised in tunnelling work for London Underground including the reconstruction of Piccadilly Circus tube station and the expansion of the Central line. In the 1930s he and Mowlem were instrumental in introducing geotechnical processes to the UK.

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Harding was placed in charge of defence and emergency repair of underground services in London. He built pre-cast concrete petrol barges and eight of the Mulberry Harbour segments used in the Normandy Landings. He was also a founding director of Soil Mechanics Ltd, a subsidiary of Mowlem dedicated to work in geotechnics. After the war Harding was involved with investigations into the feasibility of construction of a Channel Tunnel and sat on the tribunal investigating the Aberfan disaster of 1966.

Harding was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was the founding chairman of the British Tunnelling Society, fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute and fellow of Imperial College. He was also a founder fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering and governor of three separate academic institutions: Westminster Technical College. Northampton Engineering College, and Imperial College. He received a knighthood in 1968.

Early life Harding was born in Wandsworth, London to Arthur Boyer Harding and his wife Helen Clinton Lowe, daughter of William Lowe, the vicar of Bunbury.

In 1931 Harding worked on the construction of the new Ford Motor Company plant at Dagenham. Major foundation problems had to be overcome during the works as the plant was sited on the spot where Cornelius Vermuyden had closed a breach in the Thames in 1621–22. From this experience Harding developed an interest in chemical consolidation techniques and was a pioneer in their use. He also developed a belief in the value of the use of compressed air in difficult ground. He was also the founding chairman of the British Tunnelling Society from 1971 to 1973 and was a founder fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering in 1976. Harding was elected a fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute in 1952 and of Imperial College in 1968. Harding served as a governor of three separate academic institutions, Westminster Technical College from 1948 to 1953; Northampton Engineering College from 1950 to 1953, and Imperial College from 1955 to 1975. They form part of a donation made by him to the University of Exeter Engineering Department in the early 1980s.