Sir Alfred Pugsley OBE, FREng, FRS (1903–1998): his legacy

Sir Alfred Pugsley's career involved work on aircraft structures and structural engineering from the 1920s onwards. A large archive of his working papers has recently been presented to the University of Bristol, where he was professor of civil engineering from 1945 to 1968. These papers, covering a significant period of development of structural understanding and approaches to structural safety, have recently been catalogued in some detail. The papers cover a wide range of topics based on structural mechanics and structural engineering. Two subjects have been chosen for discussion in this paper to show how Sir Alfred's work is relevant to, and has influenced, current engineering practice: structural safety and suspension bridges. Practising engineers will find that much of the thinking contained in Pugsley's papers is pertinent to today's need for simple, easy-to-understand methods applicable to structural engineering.