Andrew Robertson (engineer)


Andrew Robertson FRS D.Sc MIMechE, MICE, Wh.Ex was a British mechanical engineer.

Education

He was the son of a marine engineer and was apprenticed at his father's works - J. Robertson & Sons in Fleetwood, Lancashire. He was a graduate of the University of Manchester, with a first-class honours degree, a Fairbairn engineering prize and a Whitworth Exhibitioner in 1904.

Career and research

He was a demonstrator and tutor at the university. He investigated mild steel with Gilbert Cook.
During World War I, he worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough Airfield.
He was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol.
In 1924, he was elected Principal of the college and dean of the faculty.
A room is named for him at Bristol University.

Awards and honours

Robertson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1940. His candidature citation stated that he was "Distinguished for his experimental researches in problems relating to the strength of materials. Much of this work was done during the War and has not been published under his own name, but his papers on the drop of stress which occurs at yield, and on the strength of solid and tubular struts are classic. He has played a great part in the building up of the Engineering School at Bristol. Member of the Advisory Council DSIR".
Robertson was a Whitworth Exhibitioner in 1904, and later went on to be President of the Whitworth Society in 1947.