David Allen-Williams
ALLEN WILLIAMS, Professor David John Francis MA PhD FIEAust FIMechE FAIE MICE MIEE (1918-2004)
Emeritus Professor David John Francis Allen Williams was born in England in 1918 and died on 29th July 2004 at his home in Augusta.[1]
Allen Williams served as foundation Professor of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Western Australia, from 1958 till 1983, and head of the Mechanical Engineering Department from 1958 till 1977. Under his leadership the department inspired a generation of mechanical engineers who built the mining, manufacturing, process and offshore oil and gas industries in the post war development era in Western Australia.
David Allen Williams was also:
• Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia
• Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy
• Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London
• Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London
• Western Australian Radiological Advisory Council
• Council Member, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering
• Council Member, Solar Energy Research Institute of Western Australia
• Foundation Council Member, St. Columba College, UWA
• Board Member, Australian Music Examinations Board
• Advisor on Farm Machinery Research to the WA Minister of Agriculture
• Member of the Magic Circle Club of Great Britain
Professor Allen Williams obtained his education at Harrow School and Clare College, Cambridge, and worked after graduation on the design of government ammunition factories and storage tunnels. In 1940 he transferred to the Air Ministry Research Establishment where he worked in the "Secret War" on radio and radar countermeasures research. He served in Britain, America (1944), and India and Ceylon (1945). He helped develop the "Moonshine" equipment that turned the apparent echo from a small aircraft or ship into a much stronger echo on the radar screen, a vital part of a spoof invasion across the English Channel in 1944.
After the war he led the UK Telecommunications Research Establishment group making the electronic instrumentation to control Britain's first research nuclear reactor, GLEEP. In 1947 he left Harwell to write his Cambridge PhD thesis on the first 30 million electron volt synchrotrons used for radiation therapy of deep seated cancers. In 1954 he joined the Ruston Paxman group of companies to study the development of nuclear energy and automatic controls in industry and in 1956 was appointed chief research engineer with Davey Paxman and Co Ltd.
He joined The University of Western Australia reluctantly in 1958, and at the time wrote that he "... was qualified in civil and electrical engineering but not a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at the time and I thought a mechanical engineer was needed." His intensive classics education at prep school undoubtedly helped: his appointment interview was with Professor Mervyn Austin, UWA professor of classics and ancient history.
Allen Williams's experience with nuclear science and engineering soon brought significant benefits to Western Australia. As a member of the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, he was able to travel frequently and quickly helped set up the first linear accelerator for radiation therapy at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. These efforts lead to the formation of the physics and engineering department which has now evolved into the biomedical engineering department at Royal Perth Hospital.
The mechanical engineering department at UWA grew rapidly under his leadership. Less than 30 students graduated in his first four years with the Department and the department research programme was in its infancy when he first joined. By the time he passed on the leadership in 1977 the department graduated between 30 and 40 students every year and had embarked on million dollar industry based research programs with the wool industry and the major iron ore mining companies in the northwest.
He later commented on his early years: "... at that time, which of course was before the nickel discoveries and the iron ore boom up in the northwest... we just had to recommend to our students that they should go overseas or interstate to have really worthwhile and wide experience, simply because there was not very much in the way of mechanical engineering in the state."
"To mount an effective research programme we had to look for something uniquely relevant to West Australia. We realised WA has lots of salty water and solar energy and this led to the first PhD research project on solar energy distillation of water."[2]
Allen Williams joined the founding council that in 1962 established St Columba College, a residential college of UWA.
While Allen Williams was Dean of the Engineering Faculty, he introduced the first Masters Degree by Coursework and Dissertation programme in 1972.
David Allen Williams's most significant contribution to mechanical engineering at UWA was bringing large industry funded projects to the department. He convinced the Australian Wool Corporation to base its multi million dollar research programme on robotic sheep shearing at UWA. He persuaded Hamersley Iron and Mt Newman Mining that research at the department would lead to huge improvements in safety and throughput with their iron ore trains. This latter initiative involved developing the theory of the dynamics of long trains moving through variable terrain, and to the development of the first driver training simulators for the Pilbara iron ore railways[3]. In doing so Allen Williams successfully convinced conservative WA industrialists that their future lay with world leading research at UWA, and he helped build the industry partnerships that sustain the University to this day.
David Allen Williams was a unique engineer, having mastered and practised all the branches of engineering: mechanical, civil, computing, electrical and electronic engineering. It is rare for an engineer to be recognised as a fellow of one of the prestigious London engineering institutions, and a practising member of the other two.
David Allen Williams believed that engineering is a profession concerned more with people than machines. He frequently spoke about this:
"My belief is that engineering is about people and not about things. You use the things to apply principles which scientists have discovered. But all the time you must be aware that you, as a professional engineer, need to work with people on a project for people.... if anything goes wrong it will be put right by people and, you sincerely hope, enjoyed by people. I have been trying to tell students that engineering is about people and if they're at university simply because they want to use their hands on things then they're in the wrong place because they should be thinking about people all the time.”
Allen Williams was married to his wife Jessie for 57 years; they had three children, Peter, John and Elizabeth. He was an accomplished magician and organ soloist. From his arrival in Western Australia he served in the Congregational Church and later the Uniting Church of Australia in many capacities. He worked tirelessly to support the local community after he moved permanently to Augusta in 1985.
His published papers include
- “University Engineering – an Antithesis” GUWA 9(1) 1959 pp1 4;
- “Responsibilities in Science and Engineering – Presidential Address ANZAS”, Australian Journal of Science 24(6) 1961; and
- “All Play and No Work”, GUWA 15(2), pp17 21.
Allen Williams was elected a member of the Institution of Engineers Australia in 1958. He died in Augusta, WA, in July 2004.
References:
GUWA 8(1) 1958, p8
WWA 1985 p54; 1988 p66
Allen-WIlliams Family Archive
