Recent Reconstruction of Locks and Control Structures on the River Great Ouse

Captain Murray Barclay Buxton, M.C., M.A., M.Inst.C.E., who has been elected President of the Institution for the Session 1940-41, was born in Cumberland in 1889. He was educated at Repton School, where he was in the Upper Sixth and Head of the Modern Side, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a 1st Class Honours Degree in the Natural Science Tripos.

MODERN warfare, with its mechanisation and its greatly increased use of the aeroplane, has become a highly complicated and intricate organisation. Engineering construction in all its branches must be called upon to supply the aerodromes, railways, roads, camps, hospitals and all the services which are indispensable to an army in the field. The technical units in the army supply the skilled tradesmen and supervision for such works, but in order to enable them to be carried out with speed and efficiency there must also be a supply of unskilled labour organised and ready to be sent at a moment's notice to any part of the area occupied by an expeditionary force. It is for this reason that the War Office decided to form, shortly after the outbreak of war, the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps. The Corps consists mainly of men who are too old to undertake front line duties; many were in the last war and served with gallantry and distinction in several theatres of war, and their keenness and discipline is no whit less now than it was in the old days.

An Ordinary Meeting of the Institution was held at 11, Upper Belgrave Street, London, S.W.1, on Thursday, 22nd February, 1940, at 5.30 p.m., when a Paper entitled “Some Unusual Structural Features in Recent Building Construction” was presented by Mr. L. SCOTT WHITE, M.Inst .C.E., M.I.Struct .E. Mr. P. J. BLACK, M.I.Str-uct.E., L.R.I.R.A.(THE PRESIDENT) occupied the Chair.