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1986: Sir Bernard Crossland
Sir Bernard Crossland (1923-2011)
101st President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Crossland was born in 1923 in London, England.
He was educated at Simon Langton Grammar School, Canterbury, before beginning an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce, Derby, in 1940. He studied part-time at Derby Technical College, which led to the award of a State Bursary at the then Nottingham University College, where he was awarded a BSc (Ext. London) in Engineering, in July 1943. He returned to Rolls Royce, where he was appointed a Technical Assistant in the Experimental Vibration Department, where he was concerned with experimental and theoretical work on the vibration of Merlin, Griffon and Derwent engines and vibration of reduction gears on destroyers.
In 1945, he began working as a Lecturer at Luton Technical College. After a year, he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol. He became Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Bristol, before taking up an appointment in 1959 as Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in the Queen’s University, Belfast. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 1964 to 1967, and as Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1978 to 1982. He took early retirement in 1984.
Crossland was particularly interested in high-pressure engineering, and he worked closely with ICI on high-pressure polyethylene plant. He also contributed to the development of explosive welding.
After his retirement, he was involved in the investigations of a number of accidents. These include the King’s Cross Fire Investigation in 1988 and the Public Hearing into the Bilsthorpe Colliery Accident in 1994.
In 2010, Sir Bernard Crossland received The Royal Academy of Engineering's Sustained Achievement Medal in recognition of his contributions in the field of high-pressure engineering and the links he helped to forge between industry and academia throughout his career.
Sir Bernard Crossland died on 17 January 2011.
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