Herbert Rudolph Smith
Herbert Rudolph Smith
(1897 - 1989)
Herbert Smith was born in Sydney on 25 March 1897. He attended Fort Street Boys High School, then in it’s original location in the heart of Sydney. In 1914 he matriculated to Sydney University and studied engineering. Apparently he had the academic qualifications and the financial means to study whatever he liked as he chose engineering over medicine as he did not think he would have liked being called out at all hours. He completed a science degree in 1918 and a civil engineering degree in 1920. He also studied electrical engineering in his final year and developed a proficiency in mechanical engineering as well. During his university years Herbert was an active member if the University of Sydney Rifles, rising to the rank of Sergeant.
In the early 1920s he obtained employment as the head of the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department at the School of Mines in Bendigo, Victoria. He remained in this role until about 1926 when he had leave to study abroad and spent six months in the United States and Britain. On his return he resumed work in Bendigo but was anxious to get back to Sydney and obtained a job as assistant to Mr Rankin, later Sydney Building Surveyor. The transition of the work from Rankin the individual to Rankin the Sydney Building Surveyor is unclear. Rankin was offered a job with RS Morris and Co, structural engineers, but when he declined, Smith took the role.
Smith joined the Association of Consulting and Structural Engineers in 1934, the year after it was formed. In 1936 he started on his own as a Consulting Structural Engineer, and, as at this time there was little need for electrical and mechanical work, Smith’s business was back to the civil engineering side. Projects at this time included the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park and the Hotel Australia. In 1937 Smith became the third president of the Association of Consulting Structural Engineers. During his presidency the association started to move towards getting consulting engineers to be independent of the steel firms, although some joined who stood in and stayed on quite a while because the rules were that they had their own office and be independent.
One of the principal jobs at this time was putting in the basement of the Sydney Morning Herald building and all the machines had to keep running and they were sensitive to a ten-thousandth of an inch deflection and the American engineers said it couldn't be done but Smith did it without mishap.
Smith had enlisted in the army in early 1939, before the war broke out, and in 1940 was called up full time. A draftsman, Terry Hale, kept the consulting office ticking over in Smith’s absence. When the war with Japan broke out in late 1942 Smith was working with anti-aircraft guns at Jervis Bay but was brought to Sydney to work on camouflaging the large coastal forts at North Head and Cape Banks and smaller forts at West Head and South Head. In January 1944 he went to Western Australia to upgrade defences there and then to New Guinea. His rank was Major and his appointment was Officer Commanding the 8th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers. Around this time it seems to have been realised that Smith was two years overage for an overseas field command so chose to be discharged from the army rather than continue with a desk job in Australia.
Smith resumed his consulting engineering business in May 1944. There are few details of his work over the next 28 years until he retired in 1972. He was a Member of the Institution of Engineers Australia when he enlisted in the AIF in 1942 and may have achieved a higher level of membership.
Herbert Smith married Grace, sometime after he had enlisted in the AIF as his attestation papers show him as single. They had three children Judi, Peter and Kerry. He died om 25 July 1989.
To access an oral history interview with Herbert Rudolph Smith please use this link:'
