Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Deacon, George Frederick
DEACON, GEORGE FREDERICK (1843–1909), civil engineer, born at Bridgwater, Somerset, on 26 July 1843, was eldest son of Frederick Deacon, a solicitor of that town, who afterwards practised in Preston and was at one time sheriff of the county palatine. His mother was Katharine, third daughter of William H. Charlton, vicar of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square, London. Educated at Heversham grammar school, he was apprenticed at seventeen to Messrs. Robert Napier & Sons of Glasgow. During his apprenticeship he studied at Glasgow University under Professors Rankine [q. v.] and Thomson (Lord Kelvin) [q. v. Suppl. II]. On the recommendation of Lord Kelvin he was appointed assistant to Cromwell Fleetwood Varley [q. v.], the engineer to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and under him he took part in 1865 in the laying of the second Atlantic cable by the Great Eastern steamship. From 1865 to 1871 he practised at Liverpool as a consulting engineer, making so special a study of the Mersey estuary as to become a recognised authority in regard to it. He also lectured on civil engineering and mechanics at Queen's College, Liverpool. From 1871 to 1880 he was borough and water engineer of Liverpool.
As borough engineer he was responsible for the construction or reconstruction of about seventy miles of sewerage; and he laid the inner-circle tramway-rails in 1877, on a system of his own, besides introducing wood pavement into Liverpool and improving the method of set paving by adopting a solid concrete foundation for the wearing surface. His paper on 'Street Carriage-Way Pavements,' which he contributed to the 'Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers' (lviii. 1) in 1879, was awarded a Watt medal and a Telford premium.
As water engineer his work was of even greater importance. In 1873 he invented the well-known waste-water meter which bears his name. The adoption of this meter throughout the corporation's district of supply satisfactorily economised the existing sources, which were becoming inadequate, largely owing to loss through leaky pipes and fittings. In 1875 he presented a paper on the subject to the Institution of Civil Engineers (Proc. xlii. 129), and was awarded a Telford medal and premium. In 1880 new sources of water-supply had become necessary, and Deacon projected a scheme, which was adopted, for the utilisation of the river Vyrnwy in North Wales. Thereupon he resigned the duties of borough engineer in order to devote himself entirely to those of water engineer, which he discharged until 1890. The works which Deacon designed, in conjunction with Thomas Hawksley [q. v. Suppl. I], included the fine masonry dam in the valley of the Vyrnwy, forming a lake 1121 acres in extent and having an average depth of seventy feet the first reservoir in Great Britain in which a high masonry dam was employed. The dam has a maximum height to the overflow level of 144 feet, and impounds about 13,000 million gallons of water. From this lake the water is conveyed to Liverpool by an aqueduct seventy-six miles in length, which traverses three mountain tunnels and crosses under or over several railways and beneath a number of canals and rivers, including the Mersey. Messrs. Hawksley and Deacon were joint engineers of the undertaking until 1885, when Hawksley retired and the undivided responsibility fell upon Deacon. The works were opened by the duke of Connaught in July 1892. A description of them was presented by Deacon to the Institution of Civil Engineers (Proc. cxxvi. 24) and gained for him a George Stephenson medal and a Telford premium.
In both branches of his work in Liverpool Deacon won for himself a high reputation. Every question or problem was studied with the scientific thoroughness with which his former teacher and lifelong friend, Lord Kelvin, had imbued him. He regarded no practical detail as too small for earnest study and attention. He recognised, too, the aesthetic claims of constructional work.
In 1890 Deacon established a consulting practice in Westminster. In that capacity he constructed waterworks for Kendal, Merthyr Tydfil, Todrnorden, Biggleswade, Milton (Kent), and other places. At his death he was engaged upon the plans of works, now in course of construction, for supplying Birkenhead from the river Alwen, and of new works for Ebbw Vale. He reported in 1890 to the International Niagara Commissioners on the utilisation of the Falls; in 1897, in conjunction with Sir Benjamin Baker [q. v. Suppl. II], to the London county council on the water-supply of London; and in the same year, in conjunction with Dr. W. C. Unwin and Mr. John Carruthers, on the Coolgardie water-supply scheme.
Deacon was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 3 Dec. 1872, became a full member on 6 Jan. 1874, and was a member of the council from November 1900 until his death. He was also a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. He was president of the mechanical science section of the British Association in 1897, as well as of many professional societies. In 1902 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.
He died suddenly at his office, 16 Great George Street, Westminster, on 17 June 1909, and was buried at Addington. In 1910 two memorial windows were placed in Llanwddyn Church, near Lake Vyrnwy, one by members and officials of the corporation of Liverpool, and the other by his family. He married twice: (1) Emily Zoë, eldest daughter of Peter Thomson, of Bombay; and (2) Ada Emma (d. 1912), eldest daughter of Robert Pearce of Bury St. Edmunds. By his first wife he had one son and three daughters. Deacon read papers before the Society of Arts, the British Association, and provincial societies, and he wrote the article 'Water-supply' in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (10th edit.).
[Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. clxxvii. 284; Men and Women of the Time, 1899.]