Alec Skempton

[1] The failure of an earth embankment for a reservoir at Chingford in north-east London helped highlight Skempton's insights on clay strata.

Other projects included Waterloo Bridge, the Muirhead dam near Largs in Scotland, Gosport Dockyard and the Eau Brink Cut channel of the River Great Ouse near King's Lynn.

[1] He made great contributions in the field of quaternary geology and was widely consulted on problems involving landslips, foundations, retaining walls and embankments.

[3] Skempton worked on many high-profile projects through his life, notably the back analysis of the Chingford reservoir failure (July 1937) and other embankment dams, including that at Chew Valley Lake, for which he designed an array of sand-drains to accelerate consolidation of the weak alluvial foundations, the first such in the UK.

[6] He was a founding member of the Institution of Civil Engineers' Soil Mechanics and Foundations committee (now the British Geotechnical Association).