William Hannah McLean

McLean's 1918 Town Plan of Jerusalem, which was the first urban planning scheme for the city. It laid the foundations for what became West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. Sir William Hannah McLean, KBE (1877–1967 ), was a British engineer, colonial development specialist, colonial administrator, and politician.

Biography Educated privately and at Glasgow University, McLean trained as a civil engineer, then joined the Sudan Civil Service in 1906, where he came into contact with Lord Kitchener over the planning of Khartoum, for whose layout he was responsible. At the request of Kitchener, he transferred to the Egyptian Civil Service in 1913 and became Engineer-in-Chief, Ministry of Interior, where he planned Alexandria and initiated the national and regional development planning scheme for Egypt. During the First World War, he was in charge of the protection of town water supplies in Egypt.

In 1918, he prepared a protective urban planning scheme for Jerusalem, which was approved by Lord Allenby. He divided Jerusalem into four zones:

He was a member of the advisory committee on education in the colonies and of the educational commission to East Africa of 1937. He was appointed KBE in 1938. From 1931 onward, he dedicated much of his effort to the spreading of information about British colonial policy. During the Second World War, he worked on a voluntary and unpaid basis for the Information Department of the Colonial Office, producing factual memoranda about colonial administration and development for the information of parliamentarians.