Roy Thomas Severn

Roy Thomas Severn (6 September 1929 – 25 November 2012) was a British civil engineer and earthquake engineering expert.

Severn was a keen sportsman whilst a student and played cricket, rugby and football. Whilst playing for Wasps (Rugby) Football Club he met Professor Sammy Sparkes, also of Imperial College, who persuaded him to study civil engineering as a post-graduate, and also Deryck Norman de Garrs Allen, who became his PhD supervisor. Allen, who had studied under Sir Richard V. Southwell, was asked by Geoffrey Binnie's engineering consultancy to apply Southwell's equation-solving techniques to the design of the Dukan Dam in Iraq. Allen involved Severn in the project, as part of which the pair visited several arch dams and spent a significant amount of time solving complex design equations on mechanical calculators via relaxation methods. Severn studied at the Royal School of Military Survey in Curridge, Berkshire and served in Egypt, Cyprus and Aden before his service ended and he was placed in the Army Emergency Reserve of Officers on 29 September 1956. He was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on 25 January 1957, and remained eligible for recall until he retired (with permission to retain use of his rank) on 1 April 1967.

University of Bristol

After he was demobilised from the army Severn, who decided he did not wish to work as a mathematician, entered upon a career in civil engineering academia and was appointed to lecture at the University of Bristol by Sir Alfred Pugsley, who was then professor of Civil Engineering. Within a year of working there he had met and married Hilary Saxton. Severn's table was computer controlled and used a series of eccentricly-mounted weights to exert forces upon embankment dam models that he constructed of sand and wax. He refined his models using real-world data collected from a dam in Wales.

Severn was elected president of the ICE for the November 1990 to November 1991 session and was heavily involved in the running of the ICE's South-West region. Severn was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 for his services to civil engineering and in January 1995 he led a team of European experts to carry out a detailed study of structural failures that occurred during and after the Kobe earthquake. Severn authored several books including a history of Victorian engineering and a discussion of structural modelling. His last major project was a book on the history of engineering at Bristol to mark the faculty's centenary in 2009, he funded this himself and donated the royalties to establish a university scholarship fund.