William Shields
SHIELDS, William Herbert BSc MICE (1870-1955)
W H Shields was born at Poles House, Kells, County Meath in Ireland on September 9, 1870, the eldest son of diplomat James Alexander Shields and his wife Elizabeth Shields nee Thomson. His father was British Consul at St Malo, France, from 1876 to 1896.
After several years on the Isle of Jersey, he was educated at College De St Servan, near St Malo, France and the Dollar Academy, Clackmannan, Scotland. He then obtained a science degree in civil engineering at Glasgow University in 1891.
On January 25, 1893 he arrived in Albany on the “RMS Britannia” and was appointed that same month as an assistant engineer in the WA Public Works Department. In September of 1893 he was sent by C Y O’Connor to undertake an investigation of suitable sites for wells and water catchments between Northam and Southern Cross. W H Shields recommended the use of rock catchments and that five reservoirs be constructed between Northam and Southern Cross. These were Cunderdin, Kellerberrin, Merredin, Burracoppin and Parkers Road (Moorine Rock). Shields encouraged the use of masonry walls on granite outcrops to direct flow into excavated dams lined with puddled clay. All of the reservoirs recommended by W H Shields were constructed by June 1894. W H Shields was the engineer in charge of the Moorine Rock catchment and dam and spent January to June 1894 at the site.
On May 15, 1896 he was gazetted as a licensed surveyor in WA and was based at Kellerberrin. In 1897 he was assistant engineer at Tammin constructing the 60 million gallon Tammin Tank with up to 100 men involved in the project.
W H Shields could see the opportunities for agriculture with the development of the Yilgarn Railway and took up land adjoining the Tammin townsite being a 4,300 acre property named “Nyora” in the 1890’s.
On September 7, 1898 he married Mary Elizabeth Leake at Kellerberrin and they had two sons, Eardley Tennent Shields born 1903 and Hubert Leake Shields born 1906. W H Shields’ brother and civil engineer, Eardley Oswald Shields, had been the best man at the 1898 wedding but died tragically only three years later in a rail accident whist working for the Public Works Department as an assistant engineer, on the Menzies to Leonora rail line, in 1901.
From 1904 to 1906 W H Shields was Inspecting Engineer for the Public Works Department which included oversight of the Rabbit Proof fences. From 1906 to 1911 he was Designing Engineer and Personal Assistant to the Engineer in Chief, James Thompson.
In 1909 his father, J A Shields, arrived in Western Australia and took up farming with W H Shields at Tammin. W H Shields’ younger sister, Eleanor Ethel Shields, was already in Perth working as a language teacher. Another sister, Roberta May Olive Shields, was also in Perth by 1909.
After 1911, W H Shields left the Public Works Department to focus on agriculture at Tammin. On October 13, 1912, his wife Mary died of double pneumonia after surgery in Perth. His sister, Eleanor, then joined the family at Tammin.
In 1918, W H Shields, his father, stepmother, his sister Eleanor and his two sons moved to Cottesloe for him to focus on his engineering consulting with “Nyora” at Tammin being sold in 1921.
W H Shields was a prominent member of the WA Institution of Engineers and its successor, the Institution of Engineers Australia. He was a foundation member of the WA Institution of Engineers, and a member of its committee in 1919-1920. He was a foundation Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers Australia, made a full Member in 1921, was WA Division Chairman in 1922 and National Councillor in 1927. He also represented the Institution of Engineers, Australia on the Australian Roads Standardisation Committee.
On March 10, 1926, W H Shields formed Glenvar Pastoral Company with his sister Eleanor, brother Cecil and his two sons and took up land at Ninghan near Wongan Hills.
His brother, James Cecil Shields, an electrical engineer, had been involved with Professor Fleming in London in the world’s first liquefying of Hydrogen and Oxygen before travelling to India in 1893. J C Shields constructed a chain of telegraph stations from Aden to the Chinese border and ultimately became Director of Telegraphs in India. When J C Shields retired in 1927, at the age of 55, he travelled from India to Western Australia and farmed with his brother W H Shields at Wongan Hills. The Shields brothers, farming as Glenvar Pastoral Company, were very successful with annual cropping of up to 2,000 acres of wheat.
On May 16, 1933, W H Shields remarried Alice Bertha Rose in Perth. They had two children, Virginia and Penelope.
W H Shields died on March 16, 1955, at Moora, being survived by his second wife, his two sons from his first marriage and his two daughters from his second marriage.
He had made a substantial contribution to engineering in Western Australia through his professional work and work with professional bodies. He was the inventor and patentee of the multiple arch dam as well as a new form of rail construction used on the Cue-Nannine rail line. His designs included the ill-fated Fremantle Graving Dock and numerous water supply structures including rock catchments. He was also Secretary of the WA Town Planning Association.
His publications include:
- West Australian Timbers;
- Water Supply Yilgarn Railway;
- Early History of Fremantle Graving Dock;
- Catchment Areas and Run Offs;
- Bacterial Treatment of Sewerage;
- Pioneer Roads and Road Making; and
- Main or Inter Urban and Interstate Roads.
References:
Who’s Who in Australia, Sydney, 1929.
Merab Tauman, The Chief, C Y O’Connor, University of West Australia Press, 1978.
Bunbury Herald, 21.12.1901, p. 3.
Northam Advertiser, 30.4.1904, p. 3.
WA Public Service List, 1905.
West Australian, 29.9.1918, p. 1.
Daily Commercial and Shipping List, 10.3.1926, p. 5.
Railway Rock Catchment Dams Yilgarn, State Heritage Council, 2016.
Wongan Ballidu Budget, 12.3.1937, p. 1.
