Wilfrid Cracroft Ash

Wilfrid Cracroft Ash (2 February 1884 – 9 December 1968) was a civil engineer and co-founder of the construction company Gilbert-Ash. He is noted for technological inventions in pre-stressed concrete, was designer and engineer-in-chief of the Vizagapatam harbour between 1928 and 1933, and was engineer-in-chief for the world’s largest Royal Ordnance Factory based in Swynnerton, Staffordshire between 1940 and 1945.

Education and personal life Wilfrid Ash was born in Sculcoates, East Riding of Yorkshire, England to engineer father, William Ash, and mother Phoebe (née Cracroft). The same year, he married Beatrice Millicent Baxter and they had two children together, Marjory Yvonne (b. 1915 in Calcutta, India) and Maurice Anthony Ash, the environmentalist, writer and planner, in Hazaribagh, India. Beatrice died in 1917 during childbirth. In 1926 Wilfrid remarried, Edith Maud Harper, in Calcutta. They had one son, Michael Edward Ash (b.1927), the mathematician and brewer who invented ‘Easy Serve’ Draught Guinness and who pioneered the nitro-beer category. Wilfrid Ash died on 9 December 1968 at his home in Petersfield, UK. The docks were completed in 1933. Two years later, Sir Clement Hindley said: quote|"The confidence which the Government of India placed in Mr. Ash had been most fully justified." and, as an arsenal, was instrumental in securing victory over the Nazis in 1945. In 1964, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stephen Swingler commented: Ash also acted as consultant for the flotation of the Mulberry Harbour Phoenix Units used in the Normandy Landings. before becoming Bovis Engineering Ltd on 20 February 1990 ), with which he remained until retiring in 1961 at the age of 77. Ash was a pioneer of industrial building, realising the advantages of using pre-stressed, precast concrete components to speed building operations and devoting much of his time, with the Ministry of Education, to the development of the Intergrid construction system for educational buildings.

Publications Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Selected Engineering Papers Vol. 233 Issue 1932 (1932) PART 1. E-ISSN|1753-7843 Calcutta Port Extensions W C Ash (Paper No. 4842). pp. 324-360 The Construction and Sinking of Monoliths at King George’s Dock, Calcutta James David Pearson with information by Mr Ash (Paper No. 4841). pp. 361-375 Correspondence on 4841 & 4852 Calcutta Port Extensions. The Construction and Sinking of Monoliths at King George’s Dock Calcutta. W C Ash. pp. 398-411 The Institution of Civil Engineers. Selected Engineering Papers Vol. 1 Issue 122 (1932). E-ISSN 1753-7827 An experiment on quay-walls at King George’s Docks, Calcutta. W C Ash The Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Vol. 1 Issue 2 (December 1935) E-ISSN|0368-2455 Vizagapatam Harbour. Part I – General notes. Part II – Construction. W C Ash & O B Rattenbury pp.235-314 Discussion. Vizagapatam Harbour. General notes. Constructions. Pp. 315-333