Robert Julian Scott

Robert Julian Scott MIME, MICE, FAIEE, NZSocCE (1861–1930) was a notable New Zealand railway engineer and professor of engineering. He was also the creator of possibly New Zealand's first indigenous steam buggy in 1881.

He was born in Plymouth, Devonshire, England on 14 September 1861. The son of Commander Robert Anthony Edwards Scott RN, and Fanny Mary Julian. He was the cousin of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott. On 22 October 1889 Scott married Gertrude Elizabeth Bowen, the daughter of Georgina Eliza Markham and Charles Bowen. Although they had no children Scott was guardian and mentor to Peter Phipps, later a Vice Admiral.

Scott was educated at Abbey School, Beckenham, Kent; King's College London and the Royal School of Mines. On leaving school he worked in the locomotive department of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway where he was trained by William Stroudley. In 1880 he went to New Zealand worked for the New Zealand government railways firstly as a draughtsman and then as an engineer.

In 1881 he designed and had built a 35-horsepower steam buggy by Cutten and Co, Dunedin. The steam buggy was designed to carry ten passengers, and was the first New Zealand designed and built powered passenger vehicle.

Scott also designed a prototype insulated frozen-meat wagon in the mid-1880s, the "V" and "W" class locomotives, and New Zealand's first oil engine. By the age of 26 he was the General Manager of the Government's Addington Railway Workshops in Christchurch.

When Canterbury University set up its Department of Engineering in 1887, Scott became one of its part-time lecturers. In August 1889 Scott was offered an engineering post in the Railway's head office in Wellington. To retain Scott the University offered him a full-time position in charge of the School of Engineering. He was appointed in November 1889.

Scott accepted and began the development of school. In 1902 he was elected to the University of New Zealand Senate, representing Canterbury.

He even declined a salary increase to ensure the building of a mechanical engineering laboratory. The laboratory was completed in 1891 and fully equipped by 1894. On his retirement on 28 February 1923, Scott was honoured by the title professor emeritus.