Herbert William Charles Kempton Dyson, M.I.Struct.E. (1880–1944), known professionally as H. Kempton Dyson, was an English structural engineer, civil engineer, architect, editor and author who specialised in reinforced concrete structures. He was a founder member and the first permanent secretary of the Concrete Institute, which became the Institution of Structural Engineers. He designed the Central Bandstand, Herne Bay in 1924.
Background
Ancestry Dyson's paternal grandfather was William Farrell Dyson of Great Yarmouth (1823–1886), who married Mary Ann Franklin (1826–1891) at Great Yarmouth in 1852.Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries, The Bury and Norwich Post, and Suffolk Herald (Bury Saint Edmunds, England), 28 January 1879; p.6, issue 5040 in 19th Century British Library Newspapers online, Part II.Death cert. of William Farrell Dyson Yarmouth Dec 1886 aged 63, 4b/3 (transcribed in register as William Ferrett Dyson)Marriage cert. William Farrell Dyson Sep 1852 Yarmouth 4b/39. Note: His name is transcribed from the register as William Ferrett DysonMarriage cert. Mary Ann Franklin Sep 1852 Yarmouth 4b/39Marriage cert. Wm Franklin Ferret Sep 1852 Yarmouth 4b/39. Note: The name of William Farrel Dyson is transcribed in the register as William Ferrett DysonDeath cert. of Mary Ann Dyson 1891, aged 65, Great Yarmouth 4b/8 Dyson's maternal grandfather was Green Kempton (1824–1885) of Cambridge who married Eliza Campion in Cambridge in 1845.Marriage cert. Eliza Campion Cambridge Sep 1845 XIV/1Marriage cert. Green Kempton Cambridge Sep 1845 XIV/1. His name is transcribed in register as KimptonDeath cert. of Green Kempton Jun 1885, Cambridge, aged 61 3b/305.
Dyson's father was architect William Franklin Dyson who was born in Great Yarmouth, 1853, and died in Edmonton, 1918.Dyson, Herbert Kempton (1880–1944)Birth cert. William Franklin Dyson Dec 1853 4b/7Death cert. William F. Dyson 65, Sep 1918 Edmonton 3a/405Who Was Who 1920–2008 online edition, Oxford University Press 2012 Note: Dyson's father's name is spelled "Franklyn" in this source, but "Franklin" in all BMD register and census sources His mother was Edith Blyth Kempton who was born in Cambridge, 1857, and died in Wandsworth, 1905.Birth cert. Edith Blyth Kempton December 1857 Cambridge 3b/465Death cert. Edith Blyth Dyson 47, Wandsworth 1d/335 His parents married in Cambridge on 23 January 1879.Marriage cert. William Franklin Dyson Mar 1879 Cambridge 3b/582Marriage cert. Edith Blyth Kempton Mar 1879 Cambridge 3b/582
Life history He was born on 24 January 1880 in Stratford, and was baptised in the same year at All Saints Church, Cambridge.Birth cert. William Charles K.W. Dyson Mar 1880 Ham 4a/25 Note: The Register lists his name as William Charles K. Dyson (not Herbert). He was his parents' only son. By 1881 he was living at 126 Upper Kennington Lane, Lambeth, and by 1901 he was in south-west Battersea.England and Wales Census 1881, 597/27, p.5England and Wales Census 1901 In Hackney in 1909 he married Nellie Cooper, only daughter of George Cooper; she was born in Germany in 1886.Marriage cert. Herbert William C.K. Dyson Jun 1909 Hackney 1b/977Marriage cert. Nellio Cooper Jun 1909 Hackney 1b/977. Note: the name Nellie has been mis-transcribed in the register as "Nellio" but the spouse is listed as Herbert Dyson By 1911 at the age of 31 Dyson was calling himself Herbert Kempton Dyson, he was listed as secretary of the Concrete Institute and was living with his wife in Richmond.England and Wales Census 1911 In 1924 he was living at 17 Warwick Square, London SW1. He died at home, at no.3 De Vere Gardens, Kensington on 15 January 1944 aged 63 years, and was described in his Times obituary paragraph as a registered architect and chartered structural engineer, and as the "beloved husband of Nellie Kempton Dyson".The Times, 28 January 1944, ObituariesDeath cert. Herbert W.C.K. Dyson Mar 1944 63, Kensington 1a/208
Herbert and Nellie had a son, Norman Kempton Dyson, born in Richmond, 1910.Birth cert. Norman Kempton Dyson Mar 1910 Richmond S, 2a/508 Norman married Betty L. Way in Kensington, 1936, and became a flying officer on 11 May 1941 during World War II.Marriage cert. Betty L. Way/Dyson Dec 1936 Kensington 1a/295Marriage cert. Norman K. Dyson/Way Dec 1936 Kensington 1a/295London Gazette 25 July 1941: service commissions He died in Norwich in 1975.
Career Dyson had special expertise in reinforced concrete structures. He is described in Who Was Who as "an architect and consulting civil engineer; specialist in structural engineering, especially reinforced concrete and steel construction." When the Concrete Institute was founded in 1908, he was 28 years old and an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Between 1908 and 1917 he held the post of Secretary of the Concrete Institute.Full text of "The Structural engineer; the journal of the Institution of Structural Engineers" Vol IV, 1912 In May 1910 he became the first permanent secretary at £200 per year, and although he was allowed to undertake journalistic work in office hours and employ a typist at £1 per week, he had to remain within the office between 10.00 am and 6.00 pm on weekdays. In 1917 he resigned as secretary and was elected to membership; he served on its council between 1921 and 1922. In 1922 he was awarded the bronze medal of the Concrete Institute for his paper entitled "What is the Use of the Modular Ratio?" He assisted in the founding of the Institute and its 1922 development into the Institution of Structural Engineers. Besides serving on most of its committees during his career he was honorary editor of its journal, The Structural Engineer in 1923, and was honorary secretary of the Institute 1924–1925.
From 1922 to 1923 he was editor of The Builders' Journal and Architectural Engineer, which later became The Architects' Journal, and of Specification from 1904 to 1908.The role and influence of the Secretaries of the Institution of Structural Engineers 1908–1961 by John Dougill, 2003 He was a Registered Architect, a past member of the British Joint Committee on Reinforced Concrete and Hon. Secretary of the Conference on the London Steel-Frame Act (enacted as the LCC (General Powers) Act 1909). In 1910 he was sent to Paris by the Concrete Institute as part of a deputation to study the durability of reinforced concrete, looking at bridges, tunnels, culverts, reservoirs and other buildings including one designed by François Coignet in 1852. In 1914 he took part in an international investigation into reinforced concrete accidents.
On 2 February 1926 a creditor filed a petition for bankruptcy against him, and a receiving order was declared against him on 2 March. At this time he was a consulting engineer and conducting business at 17 Warwick Square, Westminster, London WC1.London Gazette, 2 April 1926, p.2404, The Bankruptcy Act 1914: receiving orders, no.1257
Designs and projects He has been described as the "designer of numerous structures of many kinds." This section lists some of those designs.
Up to 1913 In 1910 he designed a new system of floor construction, and in 1913 he designed adjustable beam forms, which were reinforced concrete beams for electric travelling cranes to run on (1913). Cassell's reinforced concrete; a complete treatise on the practice and theory of modern construction in concrete-steel Cassell, London 1913, figs 243–245, p.175
World War I
At some time between 1914 and 1918 he was employed to design reinforced concrete slipways for flying boats, and was consulting Engineer for Works of strengthening supports for the dome at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1918 he designed a Water tower for Royal Naval Air Service at Killeagh, Cork.British Architectural Library catalogue: drawings by H.K. DysonIrish Architectural Archive: Dyson, H. KemptonIrish Architectural Archive, H. Kempton Dyson's water tower
From 1919
Central Bandstand, Herne Bay
In 1923–1924 he designed the first phase of this bandstand as one of the earliest reinforced concrete structures of its kind in the UK.Herne Bay Gazette 26 February 1998, p.8: Remember when? (The newspaper's source is John Hawkins, "Herne Bay in Old Photographs", Sutton Publishing Ltd, )Herne Bay Times 7 October 1999 pp.16–17: After years of neglect Herne Bay's bandstand plays on. . .Herne Bay Gazette 6 May 1999: Art deco landmark will be Herne Bay's pride, by Dianne StingemoreHerne Bay Times: After years of neglect, Herne Bay's bandstand plays on . . ., 7 October 1999, pp.16–17 It was supported above the tidal beach on concrete pillars sheathed in cast iron, so that it was level with the promenade.Herne Bay Times 8 March 2001: Look back: battle of the bandstands was a fight against changing tastes, by Harold Gough Its cantilevered roof supported seaward-facing balconies with space for deckchairs, and sheltered both a lower deck and the stage. Metal, glazed screens at the east and west sides of the building crossed the promenade, and could be moved to protect the audience from wind, or retracted into the wings to allow promenaders to cross when no band was playing. The seating area in front of the stage was a railed-off section of the promenade, and the seating on the roof above the stage included two copper-covered domes, plus two domes which doubled as refreshment kiosks. In the 1920s and 1930s the conductor of a visiting military band was considered a VIP, therefore a red carpet would be laid across the road so that he could make his grand entrance from the Connaught Hotel opposite the Bandstand.Herne Bay Times 10 July 1999 p10
Cavendish House Between 1927 and 1928 he designed the alteration of Cavendish House, no. 32 Old Burlington Street, Mayfair, City of Westminster, London W1S, to create a new fifth storey for a picture gallery, and to rearrange space for shops on the ground floor.'Cork Street and Savile Row Area: Old Burlington Street', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 495–517. Date accessed: 28 October 2013.
Rue de Courseulles Sur Mer, Dartmouth
This project was originally called the Coombe Improvements Scheme. In the spring of 1929, Dyson teamed up with fellow consulting engineer Gower B. R. Pimm to design a road over river mud at Dartmouth.Gower Bouverie Raynor Pimm (b.1884) of Devon; president of the Institution of Structural Engineers 1944–1945. Pimm presumably used this experience to write "The Design of Piles no.78" (1929) for the Institution It was described by The Times as "an engineering feat". It was a piece of road intended to connect Dartmouth's North Embankment of the River Dart with the Dartmouth-Torquay road, thus easing traffic between Plymouth and Torquay. It was to become the Rue de Courseulles Sur Mer, part of the A379, and the estuary mud behind the road was later reclaimed as a leisure facility. A 30 ft carriageway and two 10 ft footpaths gave the road a 50 ft width.TheTimes, 8 April 1929, p.18, issue 45171, col.g:"A road over river mud: engineering feat at Dartmouth"