Boulton, A G
Contents
Photograph[edit]
Dates[edit]
Arthur Gérard Boulton 1904 - 1971
Biography[edit]
Gérard Boulton was educated at Taunton School and studied engineering and economics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He started his career working for Vickers in Barrow-in-Furness, leaving 3 years later to go to John Cochrane and sons, a public works contractors based in London. In 1929 he went to South America and became assistant engineer to the Buenos Aires Waterworks Company under G. H. Austin. He worked on all aspects if water supply and began to make his name in hydrometry. When he returned to the UK in 1934 however it was to work in Westminster with the Gas, Light and Coke Company
In 1938 he became an Engineering Inspector with the Ministry of Health, Great Britain. During WW2 he supervised the maintenance of essential water supplies and sewerage from the Welsh and Bristol regional offices of the Ministry of Health. Later water and sewerage functions were transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government where he had responsibility for dealing with proposals for new works in the water and sewerage fields. He was subsequently promoted to Senior Engineering Inspector. He was conducted public enquiries into schemes for water supply, sewerage and disposal, coastal defence and public buildings.
In 1954 he became the Engineer-in-Charge of the Surface Water Survey of Great Britain. He extended the network for recording river discharges and advised on construction of gauging stations. The work supported the hydrological surveys carried out in the 1950s on the major river basins. In 1959/61 he was an Assessor totheCentral Advisory Water Committee which played a substantialpart in proposalsfor reorganizing water management in England and Wales, and led to the setting up of river authorities and theWater Resources Board. in 1964 he became Chief Engineer of the Hydrometry Division of the Water Resources Board
He left the Board in 1969 to become a Consultant on hydrology and water resource matters to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
His unique knowledge of river basin management and flow measurement then became available to the OECD inParis, to which body he became part-time consultant-work which his deep interest in France, the Frenchlanguage and science made enjoyable. Boulton was Chairman of the Technical Committee on Flow Measurement of the British Standards Institution, and for many years-up to the time of his death-Chairman of one of theFlow Measurementcommittees of the International Organization for Standardization. In this sphere he carried out some highly importantworkand incidentally mademany friends. From 1964-69 he was chairman of a group of experts advising the UN Economic Commission for Europe on the rationalutilization of water resources.
Gerard Boulton was an authority on surface water flow measurement and has written numerous papers on the subject. He was responsible for 13 Hydrological Surveys of areas of Britain produced by the Surface Water Survey. At the time of his death he was Chairman of some of the most important Committees in this field, viz. the International Standards Organization Flow Measurement Committee - Velocity Area Methods; British Standards Institution Flow Measurement Committee; and the World Meteorological Organization Working Group on Weirs and Flumes.
He was a Fellow of the Institution of Water Engineers.
Hydrological Achievements[edit]
He was largely responsible for the development in Britain of the Crump weir of which many examples now exist, and also the Flat-Vee weir.
Reference Material[edit]
Anon, (1972) OBITUARY, Arthur Gérard Boulton, Hydrological Sciences Bulletin, 17:1, 112-112, DOI: 10.1080/02626667209493808 [1]
Anon, 1972, OBITUARY. ARTHUR GERARD BOULTON. (1904-1971), Proc. Instn. Civ. Engrs. 51(4): 808-809
Herschy, R W, 2008, Streamflow Measurement 3rd edition, CRC Press.
Major Publications[edit]
Boulton, A.G., 1965. Surface water basic principles related to network design. Design of Hydrological Networks Symposium I, World Meteorological Organization and International Association of Scientific Hydrology, Publication No.67, 234-244.
Boulton, A G, 1966, in 'River engineering and water conservation works', (Chapter on hydrological surveys,etc.), Butterworth.
Bolton, A G, 1976, in ‘River management’ (Chapter on flow measurement), Mclaren & Sons, 1967.
Boulton, A G, 1965, Minimum acceptable flow, J. Inst. Water Engrs, 19, No. 1 (Feb.), 1965.
Bolton, A G and A. Bleasdale, 1963, Study and assessment of water resources. Conservation of water resources, U K . Sep. Pubn 121.
Bolton, A G, 1965, Surface water and modernization. Informal discussion,P. 36 (Apr.), 909-13. ‘UK Development of Water Resources’, ECE Committeeon the Rational Use of Water in Europe.Geneva, 1965.
