Obituary
- Peter McCann 1931-2011
- Sadly, the UK industry is remembering a colleague who devoted his talent and career to tunnelling. Peter McCann died on Wednesday 9 February, at the age of 79, and after a prolonged battle against cancer.
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Peter McCann 1931-2011
- Peter was a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and long time member of the British Tunnelling Society.
- He held senior positions with a number of contractors including John Laing & Sons and, Mitchell Construction Kinnear Moodie Group, but is probably best remembered for his time with Mitchell Brothers, and via his involvement on the Victoria Line and numerous other tunnelling projects. In 1977 he started a consultancy practice, Thomas Dooris Associates, in partnership with Derek Thomas, former Managing Director of Mitchell Brothers. The company provide commercial and technical services to contractors and sub-contractors in the civil engineering and tunnelling fields. In that capacity and until retirement in 2004, Peter advised on claims settlements on several tunnelling contracts including a compressed air drainage tunnel in Warrington; rock tunnels and shafts for hydroelectric schemes in Swaziland and Mauritius; main drainage tunnels in Yorkshire and Tyneside; and on tunnel projects in India, Australia and Egypt.
- Peter was always keen to involve ladies in the activities of male dominated groups such as the BTS and was instrumental in getting sparking off interest in a social gathering for wives and partners that developed into the Annual BTS Dinner, now in its 23rd year. He encouraged young women to continue in the field of civil engineering and was among a group in the BTS who decided that a new assistant editor with the Society's official magazine, Tunnels & Tunnelling, was worth supporting to "let her have a go". That was in early 1982 and lead to a career in the international tunneling industry for now publisher and editor of TunnelTalk. Always ready with loud laugh to share the funny side of any situation, Peter will be missed by his colleagues and by the regulars in the Buttery.
- Peter is survived by his wife Jacqueline, also a great supporter of those in the tunnelling business and their wives and partners, son Alistair, and daughters Nicola Catherine and Sarah.
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