Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Vernon-Harcourt, Leveson Francis
VERNON - HARCOURT, LEVESON FRANCIS (1839–1907), civil engineer, born in London on 25 Jan. 1839, was second son of Admiral Frederick Edward Vernon-Harcourt and grandson of Edward Harcourt, archbishop of York [q. v.]. He was thus a first cousin of Sir William Harcourt [q. v. Suppl. II]. His mother was Marcia, daughter of Admiral John Richard Delap Tollemache, and sister of John Tollemache, first Lord Tollemache. His elder brother, Augustus George, F.R.S., is one of the metropolitan gas referees. Educated at Harrow and at Balliol College, Oxford, he obtained a first-class in mathematical moderations in Michaelmas term, 1861, and graduated with a first class in the natural science school in Easter term 1862. From 1862 to 1865 he was a pupil of (Sir) John Hawkshaw [q. v. Suppl. I] and was employed on the Penarth and Hull docks. After serving in the office as an assistant, he was appointed in 1866 resident engineer on the new works at the East and West India Docks (cf. his paper, Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. xxxiv. 157). On their completion early in 1870 he gained, in open competition, the county surveyorship of Westmeath, but within a few months he resigned and took up the duties of resident engineer at Alderney harbour (cf. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. xxxvii. 60). From 1872 to 1874 he was resident engineer on the Rosslare harbour works and the railway to Wexford. He then returned to London, and in 1877 made a survey of the Upper Thames Valley, on behalf of Hawkshaw.
In 1882 he commenced practice as a consulting engineer in Westminster, and in the same year became professor of civil engineering at University College, London. He filled the chair with great success till 1905, being appointed emeritus professor next year. He chiefly devoted himself to the engineering of harbours and docks, rivers and canals, and water-supply, and in this branch of engineering he became an acknowledged authority, pursuing the study of it with enthusiasm in all parts of the world. In text-books and papers as well as in evidence before parliamentary inquiries he showed to advantage a practical training combined with literary and scientific aptitudes. His chief text-books are 'Rivers and Canals' (2 vols. Oxford, 1882 ; 2nd edit. 1896) ; 'Harbours and Docks' (Oxford, 1885) ; 'Civil Engineering as applied in Construction' (1902) ; 'Sanitary Engineering' (1907). In 1891 he published a popular work, 'Achievements in Engineering during the last Half-century.'
Vemon-Harcourt's fluent command of French enabled him to take an active part in the proceedings and organisation of navigation congresses. He attended on behalf of the Institution of Civil Engineers the Navigation Congresses held at Brussels in 1898 (cf. Proc, Inst. Civ. Eng. cxxxvi. 282), at Paris in 1900 {ib. cxlv. 298), and at Dusseldorf in 1902 (ib. clii. 196). At the Milan congress in 1905 he was also delegate of the British government (ib. clxvi. 346). In 1906 he was a member of the International Consultative Commission for the Suez Canal works. He also served on an international jury in Vienna to consider schemes for large canal-lifts, and was created in 1904 a commander of the Imperial Franz-Josef Order of Austria-Hungary. In 1896 he reported to the Commissioners of the Port of Calcutta upon the navigation of the river Hooghly (cf. his paper in Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. clx. 1905, p. 100). Other engineering reports relate to the rivers Usk, Ribble, Mersey (Crossens Channel), OrweU, and Dee, the Aire and Calder navigation, the Ouse navigation, and the harbours of Poole in Dorsetshire, Sligo and Newcastle in Ireland, and Newport, Monmouthshire. An essay written in 1881 'On the Means of Improving Harbours estabhshed on Low and Sandy Coasts, like those of Belgium' (MS. at the Institution Civ. Eng.) was placed second at the first quadrennial international competition instituted by the King of the Belgians. He was held in high repute among continental engineers as well as in his own country. At his death he was the oldest member of council of the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses.
Elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 5 Dec. 1865, and transferred to membership on 19 Dec. 1871, he contributed eighteen papers in all to its 'Proceedings,' for which he was awarded the Telford and George Stephenson medals, six Telford premiums, and a Manby premium. These papers include, besides those already mentioned, 'Fixed and Movable Weirs' (Ix. 24) ; 'Harbours and Estuaries on Sandy Coasts' (lxx. 1) ; 'The River Seine' (lxxxiv. 210) ; 'The Training of Rivers' (cxviii. 1). He also contributed to the 'Proceedings' of the Royal Society, the Society of Arts, and the Institution of Mining Engineers, and in 1905 he was president of the mechanical science section of the British Association at Cape Town. He wrote on 'River Engineering' and 'Water Supply' in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica' (9th edit.).
He died at Swanage on 14 Sept. 1907, and was buried at Brookwood cemetery. To the Institution of Civil Engineers he bequeathed l000l. for the provision of biennial lectures on his special subjects. He married, on 2 Aug. 1870, Alice, younger daughter of Lieut.-colonel Henry Rowland Brandreth, R.E., F.R.S., and left a son (d. 1891) and two daughters.
[Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. clxxi. 421; Catalogue of the Library Inst. Civ. Eng.; Engineering, 20 Sept. 1907; Burke's Peerage.]