C.A. Middleton Smith (1879-1951) and the Establishment of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Appointed in May 1912 to the first chair professorship (namely Taikoo Professor of Civil Engineering) at the University of Hong Kong, C.A. Middleton Smith (1879- 1951), who got the degree of M.Sc. from the University of Birmingham and was also a chartered mechanical engineer, arrived in Hong Kong the following September. Civil engineering and mechanical engineering were taught amongst the earliest curriculum of the University of Hong Kong. Prior to his arrival in Hong Kong, C. A. Middleton Smith taught as an assistant professor in engineering and conducted his research at King’s College of London University on the behavior of metals subjected to combined stresses and his papers on this subject form an important contribution to this branch of engineering knowledge during the years 1904-1912. In Hong Kong he made a prolonged study of the problems affecting air-conditioning in the tropics. In various capacities – as Dean of the Faculty, Consulting Engineer to the University of Hong Kong and member of innumerable committees he worked hard in organizing courses of instruction, drawing up syllabuses and framing rules and regulations, in planning and supervising the building of hostels, staff-houses, new laboratories. Special mention should be made of his mission to England during the summer of 1913, as the result of which machinery and apparatus worth many thousands of pounds were presented to the University of Hong Kong; and of his success in persuading Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862-1956) to build and equip the excellent engineering workshop bearing Sir Robert’s name. Among other community services, he founded the Hong Kong University Engineering Society and was its first president. Middleton Smith served as Past-President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders of Hong Kong; Honorary Member of the Junior Institution of Engineers; Honorary Associate of the Engineering Society of China. Some of his earliest students include Fu Bingchan傅秉常 (Foo Ping Sheung, First Class Honour, 1916; 1896-1965), Liu Xianzhou劉仙洲 (Liu Chen Hua劉振華, First Class Honour, 1918; Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Tsing Hua University, 1934; 1890-1975) and Shi Zhiren石志仁 (Shih Chih Jen, First Class Honour, 1922; Assistant Works Manager, Tang Shan Works, Tang Shan, Peking Mukden Ry., Hopei Province; 1897-1972) who started to enroll in the Engineering programme within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong in 1912, 1914 and 1918 respectively. This paper will examine the role of C.A. Middleton Smith and his significant contribution to the engineering education in colonial Hong Kong.