WALSH, HENRY NICHOLAS

Engineer, of Cork. Henry Nicholas Walsh, son of Patrick Walsh, draper, of Cork, and his wife Mary Ellen (née Jones) was born in Cork on 10 September 1892.(1)  He spent almost all his working life at University College, Cork. He graduated from the college in 1914 and, after a year as a demonstrator, was awarded a research studentship at Imperial College, London, from, which he obtained a Diploma and the ME degree. In 1917 he returned to Cork as an assistant in the Faculty of Engineering and in 1921 succeeded CONAL WILLIAM O'DONAL LONG ALEXANDER  CONAL WILLIAM O'DONAL LONG ALEXANDER as Professor of Civil Engineering. He remained in this post until his retirement in 1957. He was a member of the college's governing body from 1925 to 1957 and represented the college on the Senate of the National University of Ireland for some years.

Walsh was an expert on concrete and author of a standard textbook on the subject, How to Make Good Concrete. As a member of the Dail Eireann Commission on the resources of Ireland, he was a pioneer in the development of water power and was co-author, with P. Uas O'Donail, of Comhltacht Uisge in Eirinn, published in 1919. He was a member of the Drainage Commission from 1938 until 1940 and of the Institute for Industrial Reasearch and Standards.

Walsh died in 1958.   He was married twice: first in 1922 to Rioghan Calton, of Dublin, who died childless four years later; second in 1928 to Sheila, daughter of John O'Reilly, box manufacturer, of Dublin, who survived him along with five sons.

ICEI: elected associate member, 4 February 1918;(2) awarded Mullins Silver Medal for paper, 'The strength of flat-ended timber columns', read 4 February 1918;(3) elected member, 1919; awarded Mullins Gold Medal for paper, 'The design of concrete mixes', read 3 March 1924;(4) council member, 1924-25, 1931-1938, 1940 until death; awarded Mullins Gold Medal 6 November 1933 for paper, 'Aggregate grading and concrete quality', read 1 May 1943;(5) awarded Smith Testimonial Premium 4 November 1937 for paper, 'Aggregate grading in relation to concrete mix design', read 6 April 1936;(6) vice-president, 1938-40; president, 1940-1942.

See BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

All information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from the obituaries of Walsh in IB 100, 13 Jan 1958, 935, and Engineers Journal 12 (1959). 28, and from Jones's transcripts from the lists of ICEI office bearers in TICEI.  Genalogical information was supplied by Walsh's granddaughter Caroline Walsh, Oct 2012.  A portrait of Walsh forms the frontispiece of TICEI 67 (1940-41).


(1) Obituary in ICE Proceedings 15, 1 Jan 1960, 77 (reference kindly supplied by Caroline Walsh, Oct 2012).
(2) TICEI 44 (1917-18), 36.
(3) TICEI 44 (1917-18), 154.
(4) TICEI 51 (1924-25), 263.
(5) TICEI 60 (1933-34), 28.
(6) TICEI 64 (1937-38), 20.