Aust. Historical Medals

Lot 662    Session 3 (2.30pm Tuesday)    Aust. Historical Medals

Estimate $400
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $600

AWARD MEDALS TO WILLIAM HENRY WARREN, Science and Art Department National Prize in Science, the Queen's Medal, (1872), in bronze (38mm), by W.Wyon, obverse crowned head of young Queen Victoria left, reverse, text inside wreath, edge inscribed, 'W.H.Warren. Mathematics. 1872'; Whitworth Scholarship Medal for Mechanical Engineers, (1873), in bronze (57mm), by J.S. & A.B.Wyon, obverse, bust of Sir Joseph Whitworth left, reverse, precision engineering machinery, edge inscribed, 'William H.Warren. 1873.'; Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, 1887, First Order of Merit, in bronze (76mm) (C.1887/5), by E.A.Altmann, Melbourne, obverse, old Queen Victoria bust left, reverse, text inside wreath, unnamed as issued; Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce medal, 1910, in silver (64mm), by Bertram Mackennal, obverse, George V head left, reverse, text inside wreath, edge inscribed, 'W.H.Warren, LL.D., M.Inst. C.E., M.Am. Soc. C.E., For His Paper On "The Hardwood Timbers Of New South Wales" Session 1912-1913.' The last three medals with edge bruise, otherwise very fine - extremely fine. (4)

William Henry Warren was born at Bristol, Somerset, England and educated at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and Queen's College, Manchester. He won the national prize in science awarded by the Science and Art Department, the prestigious Whitworth scholarship and the Royal Society of Arts technological scholarship. In 1872 he entered the service of the London and North-Western Railway Company and spent five years at its workshops at Wolverton. Warren migrated to Australia in 1881 and entered the Public Works Department at Sydney on 9 May 1881 and was placed in charge of the supervision of roads, bridges and sewerage. In 1883 he was appointed lecturer in engineering at the University of Sydney, and a year later was made professor of the new department. In 1890 he was made John Henry Challis professor, a professorship established in honour of John Challis, an Anglo-Australian merchant, landowner and philanthropist.

In 1885 Warren sat on the royal commission on railway bridges, and in 1892 was a member of the committee of inquiry on Baldwin locomotives. He was later chairman of the electric tramways board and was on the automatic brakes board and for many years he was consulting engineer to the Government of New South Wales. Warren was a member of the council of the Royal Society of New South Wales for many years, was inaugural president of the Institute of Engineers of Australia, Australian representative of the Institute of Engineering in Great Britain, and a council member of the International Society for the Testing of Materials. During World War I, he conducted over 10,000 tests of munition steel.

Between 1887 and 1921 William Warren wrote several books and numerous papers on timbers as well as engineering construction. He resigned his professorship at the end of 1925 and was made emeritus professor but shortly after he died suddenly at Sydney on 9 January 1926 and was buried in the Anglican section of Waverley Cemetery.