Civil engineer

Born: January 29, 1919;

Died: April 15, 2016

TERENCE Victor Alldritt, who has died aged 97, was a civil engineer who was involved in the construction of many of Scotland’s largest civil engineering and hydro electric projects, including Glasgow’s inner ring road and the Kingston Bridge, which radically changed the landscape of the city, and the north approaches to the Forth Road Bridge, the largest ever contract of its nature in Scotland.

He was born the youngest of three boys at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin in 1919 but the family moved to the south side of Glasgow where they had strong association with the Boy Scouts and the church.

His father was in advertising in Glasgow and spent his spare time raising money for charity by giving performances of "ventriloquial absurdities and artistic sleight of hand experiments". Terry himself began assisting his father from a young age and helped with mindreading and conjuring shows in Glasgow, London, Dublin, Belfast and Aberdeen. He was a regular at Tam Shepherds Queen Street shop in Glasgow where his family is still fondly remembered.

After Shawlands Academy, where he was capped for rugby, the young Terry went on to study civil engineering although his studies were interrupted by the Second World War. He was posted to North Africa as a captain and is remembered in dispatches for his role as a Royal Engineer in the Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, which took place in the winter of 1943-44. This was one of the longest and bloodiest engagements of the Italian campaign and one of the most important, protecting the main route through Italy.

He travelled through North Africa and into southern Italy in an advance party negotiating the contours of the mountainous spine of Italy, building bridges and repairing cratered roads to enable the advance of the Allied troops. British and Indian troops protected the high ground, while New Zealanders bludgeoned their way into Cassino itself. Throughout this long, cold winter, Terry often slept in redundant bread ovens. He kept in touch with many of his platoon from 78th ‘Battleaxe’ Division of Royal Engineers until recently. This period exerted a deep influence on his life.

He returned to Glasgow and continued with his civil engineering studies at Strathclyde and in 1952 he joined Whatlings of Glasgow as a civil engineer. In that same year he met and married Mabel Millar of Partick, a nurse, at Park Circus. For four years they lived close to Loch Ness before moving to the Stirling area where he was involved in the building of the bridge at Bridge of Allan in 1958. This was followed by a spell in the Libyan desert at Beida working on King Idris’s palace.

As managing director of Whatlings Building Company, he managed the construction of The Queen’s bridge in Perth in 1960 followed by the north approaches to the Forth Road Bridge. In 1964 he was in the management team for several of Scotland’s largest road building projects, including Monkland motorway (stage2A), and the A80 Cumbernauld Road.

From 1965 to 1970, Glasgow’s inner ring road was underway, which included a £26m project to build the Kingston Bridge, Charing Cross elevated sections, and the Woodside section at its interchange with the Great Western Road, the Bishopston Bypass Stage 2. This project radically changed the landscape of this area of Glasgow.

Mr Alldritt worked in the management team for the construction of Stirling University and in particular the MacRobert and Cottrell buildings designed by Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall & Partners. He also worked closely with such architects as Gillespie Kidd and Coia on housing in Cumbernauld and Bellshill hospital. These were all groundbreaking projects of their time of which Mr Alldritt was immensely proud. Whatlings built many social housing schemes throughout Glasgow and the Scottish borders.

In 1977 he was appointed president of the Scottish Building Contractors’ Association. He was also appointed president of the Scottish Building Federation, a UK construction organisation representing employers in the Scottish construction industry and after retiring in 1984 he worked as a consultant on construction arbitration cases.

He lived independently until two years ago when he moved to Westerlands Care Home in Stirling. He was an elegant man, always smartly dressed and his thoughtfulness and kindness were legendary and his hospitality and generosity knew no bounds.

He led a very full life and nurtured many friendships. His love of music, opera, architecture and his irrepressible enthusiasm for travel was legendary – from the Canadian Rockies in a mobile home to a recent trip to St Petersburg.

His wife Mabel predeceased him in 1998 and he is survived by his three daughters Yvonne, an architect in London, Patricia, a teacher at Dunblane Primary School, and Valerie, a children’s care services manager. He also has three grandchildren Frazer, Calum and Nina.