William Gordon Harris

Who was William Gordon Harris?

Sir William Gordon Harris KBE CB was a British civil engineer.

Harris was born in Liverpool on 10 June 1912. He studied the Mechanical Sciences Tripos at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Harris worked for the London Midland and Scottish Railway as an engineer from 1932 until 1935 when he transferred to the Irrigation Department of Sudan. He returned from Sudan in 1937 to work in the Civil Engineer's Department of the Admiralty, the start of a 26 year association with that department. Harris married Margaret Harvie in 1938, he would have three sons, one daughter and sixteen grandchildren with her. Harris received several promotions during his time with the Admiralty, becoming Assistant Civil Engineer in Chief in 1950, Deputy Civil Engineer in Chief in 1955 and Civil Engineer in Chief in 1959. Harris gained a Commonwealth Fund of New York Scholarship in 1950 which allowed him to spend two years with the US Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks. In 1960 he became the Director-General of Navy Works at the Admiralty, a post he would hold until the reorganisation which followed the merger of the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army administrations into the Ministry of Defence in 1963. During his time with the Admiralty Harris saw the last large gunnery ships go out of service to be replaced with submarines and aircraft carriers. This change of fleet composition required a revolution in dockyard facilities, for which he was responsible, especially those at Faslane, the submarine base.