Wilfrid Cracroft Ash was a civil engineer and co-founder of the construction company Gilbert-Ash. He is noted for technological inventions in pre-stressed concrete, was designer and engineer-in-chief of the Vizagapatam harbour between 1928 and 1933, and was engineer-in-chief for the world’s largest Royal Ordnance Factory based in Swynnerton, Staffordshire between 1940 and 1945.
Wilfrid Ash was born in Sculcoates, East Riding of Yorkshire, England to engineer father, William Ash, and mother Phoebe. His general education was at Ipswich Endowed School and, having studied privately with Bertram Lawrence Hurst between 1903 and 1907, he gained a B.Sc in 1909 from London University. The same year, he married Beatrice Millicent Baxter and they had two children together, Marjory Yvonne and Maurice Anthony Ash, the environmentalist, writer and planner, in Hazaribagh, India. Beatrice died in 1917 during childbirth. In 1926 Wilfrid remarried, Edith Maud Harper, in Calcutta. They had one son, Michael Edward Ash, the mathematician and brewer who invented ‘Easy Serve’ Draught Guinness and who pioneered the nitro-beer category. Wilfrid Ash died on 9 December 1968 at his home in Petersfield, UK.
Career
In his early years, Wilfrid Ash was engaged in the construction of the gun-batteries at Portsmouth Harbour. In 1907 he joined the Indian Civil Service and in 1909 became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was posted to Calcutta in 1910 where he was responsible for the completion of King George's Dock. In 1928, he relocated to Vizagapatam, as engineer-in-chief, to design and supervise the construction of the new Vizagapatam Harbour. Here he implemented the unique feature of scuttling, end-to-end, two tramp ships to form a revetment, enabling the containment of silting from the harbour area. The docks were completed in 1933. Two years later, Sir Clement Hindley said: Ash retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1938 and, following the outbreak of WWII in 1939, he became a consultant to Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, later joining the Ministry of Supply. He became engineer-in-chief for Bovis of the world’s largest ordnance factory, ROF Swynnerton, overseeing the erection of 1,700 buildings within just nine months. At the height of the war, the Swynnerton factory employed approximately 18,000 labourers and, as an arsenal, was instrumental in securing victory over the Nazis in 1945. In 1964, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stephen Swingler commented: Ash also acted as consultant for the flotation of the Mulberry Harbour Phoenix Units used in the Normandy Landings. In 1946 he joined Paul Gilbert and with him founded the construction firm Gilbert-Ash Ltd, with which he remained until retiring in 1961 at the age of 77. Ash was a pioneer of industrial building, realising the advantages of using pre-stressed, precast concrete components to speed building operations and devoting much of his time, with the Ministry of Education, to the development of the Intergrid construction system for educational buildings.
