Henry Maybury

Brigadier-General Sir Henry Percy Maybury GBE KCMG CB (17 November 1864 – 7 January 1943) was a British civil engineer. He began his career as a railway engineer, working on many railways in England and Wales before becoming the county surveyor for Kent. At the start of the First World War he was appointed to supervise roads used by the Allies in France, holding the British Army rank of Brigadier-General. In recognition of his services in this theatre he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by the British government and an officer of the Legion of Honour by the French. After the war he held various civil service positions, mainly within the Ministry of Transport, and was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1933.

Maybury was born in Uffington in Shropshire, fourth son of Charles Maybury, a farmer, and his wife Jane (nee Matthews), and was educated at nearby Upton Magna. Upon finishing his studies Maybury began work at Shrewsbury railway station in the office of the chief engineer of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, a joint venture between the Great Western and London and North Western railway companies, where he worked for five years.

In 1884 he joined the Wrexham contracting firm of Johnson Brothers and Slay, where he became manager, and worked on the Glyn Valley Tramway during the rebuilding in 1886. From 1892 until 1895 he served as the engineer and surveyor of the Ffestiniog Local Highways Board, followed by a similar appointment to the Malvern Urban District Council. From 1904 until 1913 Maybury served as the county surveyor for Kent. In 1910 he was a member of the Advisory Engineering Committee to the Road Board, serving as their Chief Engineering Officer upon leaving his position in Kent.

From the start of the First World War he was appointed by the War Office to build and maintain roads at military camps in the United Kingdom. In 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and placed in charge of the Roads Directorate which supervised the roads used by Allied forces in France. The directorate was responsible for 40,000 men and 4,000 miles of roads. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1917.

Plaque at Mile Cross bridge, Norwich

In 1919 he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and was appointed Director General of the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport, a position he would hold for the next nine years. He served as president of the newly formed Institute of Transport in 1921 and as a Justice of the Peace for Kent in 1922.

Upon retiring from the ministry in 1928 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire and given the freedom of the borough of Shrewsbury. Maybury was elected as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1933, an annual accolade awarded to the profession's most regarded engineers.

He was appointed to the twelve member London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee when it was formed in 1928 and had responsibility to advise the Minister of Transport on the London Traffic Area. He served as the committee's representative on the London Passenger Transport Board from its formation in 1933 to his death.

In 1927 he officially opened Maybury Road in Edinburgh, named in his honour, in his capacity as Director General of the Ministry of Transport. In 1928 the Paviors' Company, to which he had been elected in 1918, founded a professorship in highways engineering at the University of London named after himself. For 1936 he was appointed President of the Shropshire Horticultural Society and he had been President of the Shropshire Society in London.

Maybury also held a number of commercial directorships up to his death, including chairmanship of the British Quarrying Company and trustee of the West Midlands Savings Bank.

Maybury was twice married. He first married, in 1885, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sheldon of Ludlow, Shropshire. By her he left a son and two daughters. She died in 1929. He married, secondly, in August 1942, when aged 77, his personal secretary, Katharine Mary, daughter of Samuel William Pring of Winchester, Hampshire.

He died, at his home, Four Winds, at Mousecroft Lane, Shrewsbury, on 7 January 1943, aged 78, of asthma and cerebral haemorrhage. He was cremated at Perry Barr Crematorium, Birmingham.

The National Portrait Gallery holds ten portraits of Maybury in its photographical collection.