John Taylor & Sons - Hyder Consulting

Sir Bruce White, Wolfe Barry and Partners: ports and maritime engineering,
1856 to 1991
enemy coast to launch an invasion on the
European continent. In the First World War, it
was possible to conduct the war from the
Richborough port, because the Continental
ports and canals were available for landing and
transportation of troops and equipment and the
plan was not needed. In the Second World War,
however, it proved to be essential to provide
harbour facilities off shore, as the Allied Forces
had been driven off the Continent and Churchill’s
plan was brilliantly executed in 1943 to 1944.
Bruce White entered the War Office in 1940 as
Staff Captain in the Directorate of Transportation,
Royal Engineers (later to become a Brigadier) and
began the work of repairing ports and making
provision for any subsequent invasion of the
Continent.
At that time the British Army had been
evacuated from Dunkirk and there was no
question of mounting an invasion of the
Continent, but rather of preparing defences
against a German invasion. Sir Winston Churchill
boosted the morale of the nation with his
wireless speeches such as his famous “fight on
the beaches” appeal. After the “Lend-lease”
weapons started to arrive from the United States
in 1940, the mood began to change from defence
to attack with the beginning of a scheme for the
invasion of “Fortress Europe”.
Sir Winston Churchill sent a memo on 30th
May 1942 to the Chief of Combined Operations,
Lord Mountbatten:
“PIERS FOR USE ON BEACHES. They must
float up and down with the tide. The anchor
problem must be mastered. Let me have the best
solution worked out. Don’t argue the matter.
The difficulties will argue for
themselves.”
Brigadier Bruce White as Director of Ports
and Inland Water Transport at the War Office had
the responsibility to follow up on the memo,
assisted by his Deputy J.A.S. Rolfe (later a Partner
in the firm Sir Bruce White, Wolfe Barry and
Partners). With his team of engineers at the War
Office, he devised a solution within seven days.
He had been involved in the rapid construction
of military ports in Scotland to compensate for
the vulnerability and bombing of the east and
south coast ports. Deep-water berths and all the
support facilities for two large resident
communities were constructed with great
urgency at Faslane Bay on Gare Loch and Cairn
Ryan on Loch Ryan. This project proved to be the
training ground for the construction of the
artificial harbours.
Bruce White was also involved in the
shipping and erection of 30 cranes from the Port
of London to the Middle East, the dismantling of
cranes in Southern England for transfer to
Scotland and the production of 360 cranes with
their own generating set to be taken to the
Continent in the event of an invasion. Cranes
would be a vital necessity at ports captured by
the Allied Forces, as were port repair vessels and
depots, dock gates and pontoons.
Floating roadway under construction,
Mulberry Harbours.
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