Person
Ledger, William Henry (1870 - 1944)
- Born
- 23 November 1870
Wrotham, Kent, England - Died
- 7 April 1944
Roseville, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Civil engineer, Consulting engineer and Structural engineer
Summary
William Henry Ledger, BE BSc MCE(Cornell) MIMinE MInstCE MIEAust, brought American design and construction experience of large steel structures to Australia in 1900. After completing work for Milliken Bros. of New York in Queensland in 1902, he lectured at Charters Towers School of Mines, then from 1903 at South Australian School of Mines. From 1910 he was manager and engineer for the Sydney Steel Company, and from 1915 was engaged by the New South Wales Railway Department as a designing engineer for the Sydney underground railway.
In 1928 he began his own practice as a consulting civil and structural engineer, partnering with Robert Crooks, AssocMInstCE, from 1934.
Details
Chronology
- 1893
- Award - University Gold Medal, University of Sydney
- 1893
- Education - Bachelor of Engineering, BE(Hons), University of Sydney
- 1893 - 1895
- Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship [Civil Engineering. - Bridge engineering. Cornell University]
- 1895
- Education - Master of Civil Engineering (MCE), Cornell University
- 1896
- Career position - General Sanitary work, Montclair Board of Health, New Jersey
- 1897 - 1898
- Career position - Designing Draftsman, Nathaniel Roberts [Detailed design of steelwork, for front of the 30 storied, 119m steel skyscraper 'Park Row' Building, New York - one of the world's tallest building at that time]
- 1897 - 1898
- Career position - Design of details for steelwork, Post and McCord, and R P & J H Staats, Engineers [Empire and Washington Life Building, Hudson River pier]
- 1898 - 1899
- Career position - Engineer, Elmira Bridge Co Ltd, Elmira, New York [Designing and detailing steelwork for many large contracts: Boston railway terminal, railway truss bridges, skyscrapers, etc]
- 1899 - 1900
- Career position - Design Engineer, Emil Swanson, Keystone Bridgeworks [Design and details of 500 ft Monongahela River Bridge (Panhandle Bridge), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
- 1899 - 1900
- Career position - Assistant engineer, Kinzua Viaduct, Pennsylvania, USA [The longest, highest railway viaduct at that time]
- 1900 - 1902
- Career position - Engineer in Australia, Milliken Brothers, Engineers and contractors, New York
- 1902
- Career position - Lecturer in mathematics, mechanical drawing and surveying, Charters Towers School of Mines
- 1903 - 1910
- Career position - Lecturer in charge of Engineering and Surveying Department, South Australian School of Mines
- 1910 - c. 1915
- Career position - Manager and engineer, Sydney Steel Company
- 1915 - 1926
- Career position - Design engineer, New South Wales Railways [Design of the Sydney Underground Railway]
- 1918
- Career event - Member (MInstCE), Institution of Civil Engineers, London [Originally nominated in 1912, but not processed until 1918]
- 1919
- Career event - Foundation Associate Member (AMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia
- 1920
- Career event - Member (MIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia
- 1924
- Publication - Lecture and paper: "Safe load for an unsymmetrically loaded column"
- 1926 - c. 1938
- Career position - Consulting Civil and Structural Engineer
- 1930
- Career position - Inaugural chairman, Structural Engineering Branch, Sydney Division, Institution of Engineers Australia
- 1930
- Career position - Institution of Engineers Australia, nominee on "Regulations for Steel Framed Buildings", Standards Association of Australia
- 1939 -
- Career position - Appointed Member, Board of Appeal Panel, Sydney City Council
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Record of the science research scholars of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, 1891 - 1960 (London: The Commissioners, 1961), 107 pp. Science Research Scholarship - Entry No.48. Details
Journal Articles
- 'Appointments to the Board of Appeal', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 11 (6) (1939), iv. Details
- Ledger, William Henry, 'Safe load for an unsymmetrically loaded column', Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 5 (1924), 67-79, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.862161508046397. Details
- Ledger, William Henry (Forster, A. D. F.; Debenham, A. J.; Bickford, C. R.; Dennis, S.), 'Safe load for an unsymmetrically loaded column (Discussions and communications)', Transactions of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 5 (1924), 355-358, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.862608699356594. Details
Newspaper Articles
- 'Death of Mr. W. H. Ledger', Sydney Morning Herald (1944), 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17886489. Details
Resources
- Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 'Application: 15561, 1918', Civil Engineer Membership Forms, 1818-1930, ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/3585/. Details
Ken McInnes
Created: 7 October 2026