William Pole

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William Pole FRS FRSE MICE (22 April 1814 – 30 December 1900) was an English engineer, astronomer, musician and a keen expert on the game of whist. He was born in Birmingham, the son of Thomas Pole, and began an engineering apprenticeship in Birmingham around 1828.

Pole went to India in 1844 to be a professor of engineering at Elphinstone College in Bombay, where he set up courses for Indian students. Poor health forced him to return to England in 1848. Back in London, he worked with James Simpson and James Meadows Rendel, and in 1859 he was appointed to the chair of civil engineering at University College London. He participated in several government inquiries, including armour for ships and fortifications (1861–1864), the debate over Whitworth and Armstrong guns (1863–1865), the Royal Commission on Railways (1865–1867), and the London Water supply (1867–1869). He also helped with the London Sewage Commission (1882–1884) and the science museums in South Kensington (1885). In 1871 he advised the War Office on the Martini-Henry rifle and served as a consulting engineer in London to the Japanese government, influencing the development of Japan’s railways.

Pole was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861 in recognition of his work on color vision. Music was another major interest. At age 22 he became organist of St Marks, London. He earned a Bachelor of Music at Oxford in 1860, a Doctor of Music in 1867, and in 1879 published Philosophy of Music. He helped establish musical degrees at the University of London in 1877 and served for many years as an examiner.

In mathematics and games, Pole studied whist with a scientific mindset, joining the tradition of Cavendish in its rigorous approach to the game. He wrote on steam engines, iron construction, and biographies of notable engineers such as Robert Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Sir William Fairbairn and Sir William Siemens, as well as books on music and whist and various papers.

In 1877 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were fellow engineers: David Stevenson, Sir John Hawkshaw, James Leslie and Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin. He died at his home, 9 Stanhope Place, near Hyde Park in London, on 30 December 1900.

Pole married Matilda Gauntlett (died 1900), daughter of Henry Gauntlett. Their son, also named William Pole but who changed his name to William Poel (1852–1934), became a noted actor and writer, and studied Shakespeare and the Elizabethan stage.