Terence Patrick O'Sullivan
Terence Patrick O'Sullivan | |
---|---|
Born | Shoreditch, London, England | 26 September 1913
Died | 26 February 1970 | (aged 56)
Education | University of London |
Occupation | Civil engineer |
Spouse | Eileen Burnell |
Terence Patrick O'Sullivan (1913–1970) was a British
Early life
O'Sullivan was born on 26 September 1913 in Shoreditch, London, to Patrick Joseph O'Sullivan, an Irish Catholic doctor formerly in the British Army medical service in India, and his third wife, Emma Agnes Callingham.
Terence O'Sullivan was educated by the Jesuits at
On leaving school he chose to go into
Early career
His first job after graduation was with a newly founded consulting engineering firm, L. G. Mouchel and Partners. Mouchel was a French engineer noted for his work in reinforced concrete structures who set up his firm in England during the 1900s. There O’Sullivan came under the influence of an eminent French engineer and associate of Mouchel, Clément Gilbin, and for ever afterwards was an admirer of the creativity of French engineering.
In 1937, since Mouchel's paid only four pounds ten shillings per week and his first child was on the way, he joined the London Power Company and took part in the design of Battersea Power Station. As with many professionals at the time, his career was thrown off course by the Second World War: in 1938 he began a five-year term working for the Air Ministry Works Division on a series of airfield construction projects throughout Great Britain. Next he was involved with the construction of the fourth and final chimney at Battersea, as well as with the design of Deptford Power Station. During this period he returned to university as an external student, all the while doing a demanding full-time job and bringing up a family of three boys. He was awarded a PhD by the University of London for a thesis on reinforced concrete design. This was later published by Pitmans as The Economic Design of Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Sections, a book notable for its clarity and concision of style.[1]
The other practice, based in the London office, focused on transport projects in the developing world. Work was done in over thirty countries, and offices were established in
O'Sullivan's later years were overshadowed by chronic illness, and he died on 26 February 1970 at the early age of 56. The work of the firm was carried on under the management of his wife, Eileen, and two of his sons, Kevin and Shaun. They brought forward key members of the staff as partners, and later as directors, of the company, and introduced an employee share-owning scheme whereby staff at all levels were able to participate in the ownership of the firm. Between 1984 and 1987 a series of O'Sullivan Lectures was sponsored by the firm in its founder's memory, and published privately.[7]
In 1992 T P O'Sullivan and Partners merged with consulting engineers Frank Graham. The O'Sullivan name was dropped in the UK, but the international subsidiary responsible for overseas operations became O'Sullivan and Graham Ltd.
Private life
During his time at Mouchel's O’Sullivan lodged at 38 Lisbon Avenue in Twickenham and commuted each day to his office in Westminster. On the morning train one day he fell into conversation with a girl whom he had seen in church and who was working at a firm of estate agents in Piccadilly. In 1936 he married her: Eileen Burnell. She came from an Army family: her father was a clarinettist who became bandmaster of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and taught at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, and an uncle, Francis Wallington, was a highly decorated officer in the Royal Horse Artillery.[11] She was born in Dublin, was in India in early childhood, and was educated in convent schools at Wiesbaden in Germany and Farnborough in Hampshire.
O'Sullivan established a family home in Richmond in outer London, later moving across the county boundary to Long Ditton in Surrey. He had five sons, all educated at Beaumont or Stonyhurst. He was widely read, with a fine sense for language; and was a keen speaker and writer for the general public, publishing occasionally in the daily press and contributing a number of articles on science and engineering to the Children's Britannica.[12] He was a devout Catholic and a prison visitor, and carried from his childhood an enthusiasm for Irish culture. He was a member of St Stephen's Club, conveniently near to his office. He is buried at Long Ditton.
References
- ^ T. P. O'Sullivan: The Economic Design of Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Sections, Pitman, London, 1950
- ^ The paper was published in The Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Jan 1953, Vol 2 Part 1, pp 76-95, as Paper No 5881. The award of the Telford Premium was reported in the same journal, vol 4, 1955
- ^ For example, The Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1952 vol 1 part 3 p 332; 1953 Vol 2 Part 3 p 228, p 471
- ^ Institution of Civil Engineers List of Members 1952
- ^ The firm published for some years an Annual Review, copies of which are held in the archive of the Institution of Civil Engineers
- ^ Number Fourteen: the home of the A.B.C.C., Arthur Knowles, n.d. but internal evidence suggests the mid-1950s, published by the Association of British Chambers of Commerce as a pamphlet, pages unnumbered: first page
- ^ Copies are held in the archive of the Institution of Civil Engineers
- ^ "Frank Graham and T P O'Sullivan merge". Highways and Transportation. 39: 3. January 1992.
- ^ "WSP acquires Graham Consulting".
- ^ "O'SULLIVAN & GRAHAM LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
- ^ For Conspicuous Gallantry... Winners of the Military Cross and Bar during the Great War. Volume 1: Two Bars and Three Bars, Scott Addington, Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2006, pp. 343–352; "No. 30901". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 September 1918. p. 10877.
- ^ e.g. Times Review of Industry, September 1950, p. 22; Children's Britannica, ed. John Armitage, Encyclopædia Britannica Ltd, 1960: see p xxiii