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Sir William Willcocks

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"SIR WILLIAM WILLCOCKS (1852-), British engineer, was born in India in 1852 and educated at Roorkee College, India. From 1872 to 1897 he was engaged successively in the Indian and Egyptian Public Works Departments. He designed and carried through the Assuan Dam in 1898, and for this work the C.M.G. was conferred upon him, followed by the K.C.M.G. in 1902. His most important undertaking, however, was the irrigation of Mesopotamia, begun in 1911 at an estimated cost of f26,195,000. The scheme provided for the irrigation of 3,500,- 000 acres. His published works include Egyptian Irrigation (1889); The Irrigation of Mesopotamia (1905) and From the Garden of Eden to the Crossing of the Jordan (1918). In Jan. 1921 he was put on trial before the Supreme Consular Court of Egypt on a charge of sedition and criminal libel, on account of statements made by him impugning the trustworthiness of the data concerning the Nile irrigation published by Sir Murdoch Macdonald, adviser of the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works. He was found guilty March 11, and on April 16 he was bound over to be of good behaviour for one year.