THE GIBRALTAR GROUP OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS 60th ANNIVERSARY 11 July 1958 / 2018 COMMEMORATIVE BOOKLET The Diamond Celebration of the GGPE. Congratulations to all members The Bicentenary Celebration of the Institution of Civil Engineers The GGPE offers best wishes. The ICE200 logo included as homage. ORIGINS OF THE GIBRALTAR GROUP OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS During the 1950s the developments Extract from in engineering caused a group The Gibraltar Chronicle of the of local like-minded engineers to 1st. October 1958 form an association to expand knowledge and share experiences. H.E. inaugurates new Thus, what we now call The Engineering Group Gibraltar Group of Professional SAYING that Gibraltar Engineers, was constituted probably owes more to on the 11 July 1958 under the engineering skill than any Chairmanship of Captain J G other place in the world, H.E. Watson, Royal Navy. the Governor, General Sir At the time it was called the Joint Charles Keightley, formally Group of Chartered Engineers. inaugurated a newly-formed Group at the Calpe Institute The Constituting Committee was last evening. formed by: The Governor thought that the new Group, which is called Chairman: the Joint Group of Chartered Captain J G Watson RN, MIEE AMICE Engineers, would be of great Vice Chairman: benefit not only to its members E V Andlaw, Esq. MBE MIMechE MIEE who are corporate members, Secretary: graduates and students of Lt. Col. R A Lindsell MC RE the three Institutions of Civil, Committeee Members: Mechanical and Electrical A M Baird, Esq. Engineers, but to Gibraltar as Lt. Col. G N Preston REME a whole. H.E. said he regarded engineering as the key The Inaugural Event organised profession in the world, and by the Group took place on the 30 paid engineers the compliment September 1958, at the then Calpe of saying that like doctors, they Institute. The event was recorded do all in their power for the good by the Gibraltar Chronicle. of the world, irrespective of race or creed. 3 Informal Discussion took place The inaugural meeting was on the 9 December 1958 at the presided by Captain J.G. Watson Calpe Institute, Gibraltar, on “The R.N., Superintending Electrical Training of the Professional Engineer H.M. Dockyard and Engineer”. This was considered Chairman of the new Group, a very important subject as it still who called upon the Vice- is today. Chairman, Mr. E.V. Andlaw, the City Electrical Engineer, to thank The Secretary Lt. Col. R.A. Lindsel H.E. the Governor for such an wrote to the Secretary of The “auspicious send-off”. Institution of Electrical Engineers Mr. Andlaw regarded the to seek recognition and the reply foundation of the Group as an dated 29 May 1959 confirmed historic event in the Colony, the official recognition from the and as coming at a time when three sponsoring Institutions, the needs of the Services namely The Institution of Civil and civilians were never more Engineers (ICE) The Institution closely interwoven. of Mechanical Engineers After the inaugural speeches the (IMechE) and the Institution of theme of the meeting turned to Electrical Engineers (IEE). By WATER, or better, to Gibraltar’s mutual agreement amongst devices for overcoming the lack the Sponsoring Institutions, the of it. Group was taken under the wing Mr. P.J. Coombes, Assistant or “fathered” by the Institution of City Engineer, started off by Electrical Engineers (as from 2006, describing the City Council the IEE became the Institution of distilling plant, to be followed Engineering & Technology IET). by Captain M.A.L. Cooper R.N., This agreement still persists to Chief Engineer H.M.Dockyard date. and Major P.W.E.Kidner R.E., who described the installations The name The Gibraltar Group of the Royal Navy and the Army of Professional Engineers was respectively. officially adopted by the local Later in the evening the 50 committee on the 15 July 1960. members and guests - who included the Deputy Fortress Under the Guidelines issued by Commander and His Worship the three Sponsoring Institutions, the Mayor – paid a visit to all any member belonging to the said three plants. Institutions could automatically join the Group. The words by H.E. still ring true Additionally, members of today. 4 professional Institutions, affiliated FIRST LOGO OF THE GROUP to the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom, could qualify upon application for membership of the Group. Additionally, the Group welcomes all such professional engineers from any branch of employment who might be temporarily be based in Gibraltar. The Group is registered as a non- profit making Cultural Organisation in Gibraltar. It is governed by the Guidelines issued by the three Sponsoring Institutions. Despite its long history, the first Logo for the Group was produced in time for the first major event The main objectives of the called Engineering Week which Group are:- took place during November 1994. The designer was Mr. A G 1. To promote and encourage Ryman MBE MCSO, who was then the acquisition of knowledge responsible for designing most of relevant to the Engineering Gibraltar’s postage stamps. Professions. The Logo combined the “animal” 2. To establish friendly features which at the time adorned exchanges between the logos of the respective members Sponsoring Institutions. They surround the Gibraltar City 3. To arrange meetings Coats of Arms represented by the and organise visits of Castle & Key. Below, it included Engineering interest. a banner with the acronym of the GGPE. It was drawn with black 4. To promote the Sponsoring ink on a white background. The Institutions locally. original is still safely retained. 5. To provide a focus for all The Beaver represented the ICE engineers in the area of the – for its dam building qualities. Group in matters pertinent to Stands to the left. the Sponsoring Institutions. The Horse represented the 5 IMechE – as a sign of mechanical by EASI-PRINT designers in 2009 horse power. Stands to the right. following a brief from Xavier Pons. The Royal Leopard represented It took into account the new the IEE – holding a winged slightly modified “animal” features staff of Mercury, symbol of which had been developed by the communications – Sits on top. Sponsoring Institutions. Presently, the Sponsoring The current logo, shown on the Institutions have completely front page of this booklet, was changed their logos as can be seen an innovation of the first logo and on the back page of this booklet colour was added. This was done following the trend in Corporate using current design technology Imaging. OUR FOUNDING CHAIRMAN Rear-Admiral John Garth Amongst his works, he wrote a Watson CB DSc BSc(Eng) FICE. history of the Institution of Civil Engineers – entitled “The Civils : The founding Chairman of the the story of the Institution of Civil Gibraltar Group of Professional Engineers” published by Telford Engineers was the then Captain 1988. John Garth Watson RN who held the first constituting committee meeting of the Group on the 11 July 1958 whilst he was stationed in Gibraltar. During his naval career he achieved the rank of Rear-Admiral. He was Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1967 to 1979. He passed away in 1992 and a Service of Thanksgiving was held in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey on the 3rd. November 1992. 6 VISITING PRESIDENTS In connection with the celebrations of the 60th. Anniversary, the Group is honoured by the joint visit of the Presidents of the three Sponsoring Institutions. INSTITUTION OF CIVIL Report on Review of Shale Gas and ENGINEERS (ICE) Hydraulic Fracturing for the Gov- Professor Lord Robert Mair, ernment, published in 2012. More CBE, FREng FICE, FRS recently, he became Chairman of the newly formed Science Advisory Robert was ap- Council of the Department for Trans- pointed Professor port. of Geotechnical En- In October 2015 he was appointed to gineering at Cam- the House of Lords as an independ- bridge University in ent crossbencher. As a crossbench- 1998. He is now the er, Robert will owe no allegiance to Sir Kirby Laing Pro- a political party and will maintain the fessor of Civil Engi- ability to take part in legislative de- neering. In 2011 he became Chief bates free of party considerations. Engineering Adviser to the Laing O’Rourke Group and Chairman of their Engineering Excellence Group. INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL As well as working on many inter- ENGINEERS (IMechE) national tunnelling and deep exca- vation projects, Robert has been Mr. John Wood, closely involved with the Jubilee MBE MA CEng FIMechE Line Extension for London Under- ground, the Channel Tunnel Rail John Wood was Pres- Link (now HS1) and Crossrail. ident in 2010, becom- Robert was Senior Vice-President of ing the 125th Presi- the Royal Academy of Engineering dent of the Institution, 2008-11 and was awarded the ICE Chairman of the En- Gold Medal in 2004 and the Presi- gineering Heritage dent’s Medal in 2013. Committee, and was Chairman of He was Chairman of the Royal So- Formula Student for 10 years. John ciety/Royal Academy of Engineering read engineering at Cambridge and 7 spent the early part of his career in is an independent company provid- the Army in the Royal Electrical and ing design, test and development Mechanical Engineers. services to the automotive and other industries worldwide and has offices After field appointments in BAOR in the US, China, Korea and India. and the UK, he attended Staff Col- lege and then held a number of ap- John joined the Institution in 1973, pointments in military vehicle pro- becoming a Member in 1978 and a curement, test and development. Fellow in 1987. He served as Chair- man of our Automobile Division in He retired from the Army in 1987 as 1993.