Henry Young Darracott Scott Henry Young Darracott Scott RE ( 1822 – 1883 ) was an English Major - General in the Corps of Royal Engineers , best known for the construction of London ' s Royal Albert Hall . Life . The fourth son of Edward Scott of Plymouth , Devon , and was born there on 2 January 1822 . Educated privately and at the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich , he obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 18 December 1840 . After going through the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham he was stationed at Woolwich and Plymouth in succession . Promoted to be first lieutenant on 19 December 1843 , he went to Gibraltar in January 1844 , where he was acting adjutant of his corps . While at Gibraltar he accompanied Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and his two sisters on a tour in Spain . In 1848 he returned to England , and was appointed assistant instructor in field works at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich . He was promoted to be second captain on 11 November 1851 , in which year he married . He was in the same year appointed senior instructor in field works at the Royal Military Academy . On 1 April 1855 Scott was promoted to be first captain , and was appointed instructor in surveying at the Royal Engineer establishment at Brompton , Chatham , where he was the close adviser of the commandant , Colonel Henry Drury Harness , in the reorganisation of this army school . At Chatham he had charge of the chemical laboratory , and his experiments enabled him to perfect the selenitic lime which goes by his name . His system of representing ground by horizontal hachure s and a scale of shade was perfected at Chatham , and adopted for the army as the basis of military sketching . During his residence at Brompton , Kent , a drought occurred , and he assisted in establishing a waterworks in the Luton valley . On 19 May 1863 Scott was promoted to be brevet major , and on 5 December of the same year to be regimental lieutenant - colonel . On 14 December 1865 he was seconded in his corps , and employed under the commission of the Great Exhibition of 1851 at South Kensington , in the place of Captain Francis Fowke . He gained the confidence of the commissioners , and on the retirement of Sir Henry Cole was appointed secretary to the commission . The major work by which Scott is remembered was the construction of the Royal Albert Hall at Kensington , with the design and execution of which he was entrusted in 1866 . The design of the roof was unique , and there were many predictions that it would fail . Scott , however , never hesitated . When the time arrived , in 1870 , for removing the scaffolding which supported the roof , Scott sent every one out of the building , and himself knocked away the final support . The acoustics were a problem . At first there was a decided echo with wind instruments , but the introduction of a ‘ velarium ’ below the true roof cured the defect . On 20 May 1871 Scott was made a Companion of the Bath ( civil division ) . On 7 June 1871 Scott was promoted to be brevet colonel , and on 19 August of the same year he retired from the army as an honorary major - general , but continued in his civil appointment at South Kensington . On 3 February 1874 he became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers ; on 3 June 1875 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society , and the same year a member of a select Russian scientific society , on which occasion the tsar presented him with a snuff - box set with diamonds . Scott was for some years examiner in military topography under the military education department . He was awarded medals for service rendered to the Great Exhibition of London in 1862 , the Prussian Exhibition of 1865 , the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 , the annual London International Exhibition of fine arts , industries , and inventions , the Dutch Exhibition of 1877 , and the Paris International Exhibition of 1878 . He received in 1880 a silver medal from the Society of Arts for a paper entitled ‘ Suggestions for dealing with the Sewerage of London , ’ and the Telford premium for a paper he contributed in the same year , in conjunction with G . R . Redgrave , to the Institution of Civil Engineers , on the ‘ Manufacture and Testing of Portland Cement . ’ He had prepared the plans for the completion of the South Kensington Museum , when , in 1882 , the treasury , as an economy , abolished his appointment as secretary of the Great Exhibition commissioners . This abrupt termination helped to break down his health . He designed the buildings for the Fisheries Exhibition , but was too ill to attend the opening . He died at his residence , Silverdale , Sydenham , on 16 April 1883 , and was buried at Highgate . Works . Scott ' s life was devoted to public service , and he failed to secure for himself any benefit from his inventions . He contributed to the ‘ Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects ’ ( 1857 and 1872 ) and to the ‘ Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers ’ ( new ser . vols . vi , vii , x , xi , xii , xvii , xx ) papers chiefly dealing with his discovery of his new cement and the construction of the Albert Hall . Family . Scott married , on 19 June 1851 , at Woolwich , Ellen Selina , youngest daughter of Major - General Bowes of the East India Company ' s service . She survived him with fifteen children .