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Geotechnical News • September 2017
COMMEMORATIVE EDITION
Associates. During the remainder of
his long career, Hardy carried on an
extensive consulting practice and was
widely regarded as the eminent soil
mechanics consultant inCanada.
Concurrent with Morrison’s and
Hardy’s work, the other significant
application of soil mechanics in
Canada was initiated by the Prairie
Farm rehabilitation Administration, a
federal government agency that was
building water conservation projects in
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Since its inception in 1935, the PFRA
had been helping drought-stricken
farmers to build small earth dams and
reservoirs on their properties. By 1939
the agency was becoming involved in
a few larger dams intended to provide
reservoirsfor entire communities, and
the soil problems inherent in these
structures were beingencountered.
The catalyst in introducing soil
mechanics to the PFRA was Dean
C.J. (Chalmers Jack) Mackenzie
(1888- 1984) of the University of
Saskatchewan. Born in St. Stephen,
New Brunswick, in 1909 Dr.Macken-
zie had earned his engineering degree
from Dalhousie University and in
1915 his master of civil engineering
from Harvard University. In 1912 he
joined the University of Saskatch-
ewan as a sessional lecturer. After
serving in the Canadian Expedition-
ary Force, 1916-1918, in World War
I, and being awarded the Military
Cross, he returned to the university,
becoming first Dean of the College
of Engineering in 1921. Mackenzie a
structural engineer, was a consultant
on civil engineering projects across
Western Canada - among them in 1932
the design of the Broadway Bridge,
a reinforced concrete arch structure
in Saskatoon, and in 1935-1937 a
reinforced concrete bridge across the
North Saskatchewan River at Borden.
On these major projects, Dr. Macken-
zie realized the need for the applica-
tion of soil mechanics technology to
the design of bridge foundations. One
of Mackanzie’s brightest graduate
students was David Kirkbride, who
worked on construction supervision of
the Borden Bridge.
David Spencer Kirkbride (1913-1995)
was born in Calgary. But at the age of
four, when his lawyer father died, he
came to Regina with his mother Isa-
belle Spencer) to live with her parents.
David graduated from Central Colle-
giate, winning the Governor General’s
Bronze Medal, then attended the Uni-
versity of Saskatchewan, 1930-1937,
where he earned a bachelor’s degree
in civil engineering and a master’s
degree majoring in structural.
Upon graduation, finding no employ-
ment in Saskatchewan, Kirkbride
obtained work with Monsarret and
Pratley, bridge engineers in Montreal,
but when that job petered out, hemoved
on to Canadian Industries Limited in
that city to work as a draftsman.
Through his contacts with Macken-
zie and the bridge firm, Kirkbride
became aware of the developments
takingplace in soil mechanics
and foundation engineering. He
approached the leading founda-
tion firm in Canada, the Foundation
Company in Montreal, proposing
that they should employ him, spon-
sor his graduate training at Harvard,
and thereby gain the benefit of soil
mechanics knowledge on his
return. But they were skeptical of
the practical application of the new
science, and nothing came of this.
Nevertheless, Kirkbride applied to
Harvard Graduate School, obtained
a scholarship, and in 1938-1939
became the first Canadian to earn a
master’s degree in soil mechanics.
Upon graduation, Kirkbride tried to
persuade the Dean of Engineering
at McGill University to introduce
soil mechanics into their teaching
program, but at the time the Dean
didn’t appreciate that the subject was
worthwhile. However the PFRA was
planning some larger dam projects
and Dr. Mackenzie was influential
in persuading this organization that
they should utilize the soil mechan-
ics training. that Kirkbride had
acquired at Harvard. He was hired
on staff as a junior engineer. Kirk-
bride worked for the PFRA only
from his graduation in June through
October 1939. During this short
period, he set up the first elementary
wash-bore drilling equipment, used
to augment the digging of test pits and
the boring of auger holes, themethods
heretofore used which were limited
in depth. Kirkbride also recom-
mended to management the need for
laboratory facilities, and gave some
preliminary soil mechanics advice on
a few damsites.War came inSep-
tember 1939, and knowing that the
PFRA activities would be curtailed
during the war, Kirkbride returned
toCIL to work in the war effort with
its wartime counterpart Defence
Industries Limited.
Kirkbride spent the remainder of
his substantial career with DIL and
CIL, first in the engineering depart-
ment, which greatly expanded in the
war, then as resident engineer on the
Atomic Energy Plant atChalkRiver,
Ontario.After the war, Kirkbride
took on senior management roles
with CIL, ending his career in the
late 1970s as Vice-President for
Western Canada. Thus he never
made his mark in soil mechanics.
Yet David Kirkbride had introduced
soil mechanics into the PFRA and
opened the door for others.
