Sir Basil Mott, 1859 - 1938

Sir Basil Mott, born in 1859, died on 7 September 1938 after fifty-nine years of active and distinguished professional career, during which he enriched his country with many monuments of his skill and daring, which will remain as memorials to him and to the achievements of British engineering for generations to come. Underground engineering was his dominant interest from the beginning to the end of his life and in this sphere he was one of the great authorities of his age. Nearly all of his work was directed to the improvement of the transport facilities of his country, especially to those of London, where for over forty years he was engineer for the construction or improvement of the Underground Tube Railways. Nor was modern tunnelling his only contribution to the transport problem. The art of bridge building found in him an equally great interpreter and equally daring innovator. To genius and daring he added deep charm of character. His tolerance, his courtesy and warmth of heart endeared him to all who knew him, even to those who did not always see eye-to-eye with him. He was born on 16 September 1859 at Leicester, and it was at Leicester Grammar School that he received the rudiments of his education. From Leicester he went to the International College at Isleworth in Middlesex, and after that to Soleure in Switzerland.