James Morris Gale

James Morris Gale M. Inst. C.E. (1830 - 7 September 1903) was a Scottish civil engineer for the Glasgow Corporation Waterworks. He is most famous for his work building the Milngavie water treatment works. The project directed water from Loch Katrine, 36 miles (58 km) to the north, which required the building of an aqueduct to carry the water to the city of Glasgow by gravity.

He became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 2 February 1864.

He was a life member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland and was president from 1867 to 1869.

Life and career

Born in Ayr in 1830, Gale was educated at the local Ayr Academy. At the age of 14 he moved to Glasgow and worked under his brother, William Gale, who was engineer to the Gorbals Water Company.

To extend his knowledge of engineering he attended the University of Glasgow, and studied under William Rankine. In 1859 the first stage of the works were completed. This included the first semicircular gauge basin in Mugdock Reservoir. It was opened by Queen Victoria on 14 October 1859 by opening a sluice near the centre of the south bank of Loch Katrine. Water began flowing into Glasgow on 28 December 1859. Gale was then appointed chief engineer of the Glasgow Corporation Waterworks and took entire charge of the project.

Gale contributed to Thomas Annan's "Photographic views of Loch Katrine, and some of the principal works constructed for introducing the water of Loch Katrine to the city of Glasgow" (1877), providing descriptive notes to Annan's photographs.

At the end of 1881 Glasgow had increased in population so greatly that it became apparent a larger supply of water than the aqueduct could convey from Loch Katrine would be required within a few years. Accordingly an act was obtained in 1882 for the construction of an additional service reservoir adjoining the Mugdock reservoir, to be named Craigmaddie Reservoir. In 1885 a further act was obtained which gave power to duplicate the aqueduct, to raise the level of the water in Loch Katrine 5 feet higher, and to convert Loch Arklet into a reservoir by raising its water level 25 feet. The reservoir was brought into operation on the 1 January 1897 after geological problems necessitated the excavation of a deep trench to ensure that it was fully watertight. The total cost of works since 1886 was nearly £1,500,000.

Death and commemoration

Gale retired from his post in the Glasgow Corporation Waterworks at the end of 1902. He died on 7 September 1903, aged 73, at his home in Aberfoyle.

A memorial to him was placed in the Glasgow Necropolis.

In 1904, the employees of the Glasgow Corporation Waterworks erected a memorial water fountain in his honour. The Art Nouveau style monument features a bronze plaque with a profile of Gale, embedded into a roughly hewn block of granite. Supporting the block is a cairn style base of rubble masonry.