page_title: Roy Thomas Severn
section_title: Early life and army service
hierarchical_section_title: Roy Thomas Severn / Early life and army service
caption_attribution_description: English: Front of Dukan Dam
context_page_description: Professor Roy Thomas Severn CBE DSc PhD FREng FICE was a British civil engineer and earthquake engineering expert. Severn studied mathematics at Imperial College London and achieved a doctorate in civil engineering based upon his work on the design of Dukan Dam. After completing his National Service he accepted a position as lecturer in civil engineering at the University of Bristol, where he would spend the rest of his career. Severn specialised in earthquake engineering and established the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre at the university which became one of the foremost institutions in the world within the field. He served as pro-vice chancellor of the university and as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
context_section_description: Severn was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire on 6 September 1929.  His father was originally a coal miner before he found work at the Hucknall co-operative shop and later became manager of the Great Yarmouth branch.  Severn was educated at Deacon's School, Peterborough and Great Yarmouth Grammar School before gaining a place at the Royal College of Science (RCS), part of the Imperial College London, to study mathematics.
  Severn was a keen sportsman whilst a student and played cricket, rugby and football.  Whilst playing for Wasps (Rugby) Football Club he met Professor Sammy Sparkes, also of Imperial College, who persuaded him to study civil engineering as a post-graduate, and also Deryck Norman de Garrs Allen, who became his PhD supervisor.  Allen, who had studied under Sir Richard V. Southwell, was asked by Geoffrey Binnie's engineering consultancy to apply Southwell's equation-solving techniques to the design of the Dukan Dam in Iraq.  Allen involved Severn in the project, as part of which the pair visited several arch dams and spent a significant amount of time solving complex design equations on mechanical calculators via relaxation methods.  The project formed the basis of Severn's doctoral thesis.
  Severn was required to serve in the British Army under the National Service programme and carried this out as an officer in the Royal Engineers.  Entering as an officer cadet in 1954 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 4 June 1955.  Severn studied at the Royal School of Military Survey in Curridge, Berkshire and served in Egypt, Cyprus and Aden before his service ended and he was placed in the Army Emergency Reserve of Officers on 29 September 1956.  He was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on 25 January 1957, and remained eligible for recall until he retired (with permission to retain use of his rank) on 1 April 1967.
caption: Dukan Dam
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