Guy Anson Maunsell (1884 – 1961) was the Civil Engineer who designed the WWII Navy and Army Towers in the Estuary. His life and works are covered in Maunsell: The Firm and Its Founder1Watson, Nigel, and Frank Turner. Maunsell: The Firm and Its Founder. Hong Kong: AECOM Technology Corporation, 2005.. The story of the Navy Towers2Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 1: The World War Two Naval Sea Forts of the Thames Estuary. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1994. and Army Towers3Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 2: The World War Two Army Sea Forts of the Thames & Mersey Estuaries. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1995. has been told in Frank Turner’s books.
He honed his skills building fixed and floating docks and concrete ships in the Great War. His last Great War assignment was a secret project to build eight massive towers across the breadth of the Channel to foil enemy submarines.
This was code-named Project M N and it influenced his thinking. Known as the mystery towers where they were built in Shoreham on the south coast, only two were completed before the Armistice. One was towed out and grounded to become NAB Tower in the Solent, recently refurbished by Trinity House4NAB Tower – See March 2021 for Trinity House .
Early in WW2 Maunsell proposed a chain of submersible observation posts along the coast of Europe. These 160-ton concrete vessels with a crew of five working in two-week shifts would report by radio. They would submerge if attacked and surface some hours later. RADAR made these unnecessary.
He then proposed a chain of concrete pontoon-based gun forts to blockade the enemy. Little attention was paid to these ideas until the Government requirement for Thames Estuary Special Defence Units late in 1940. Maunsell made several proposals and was awarded the project.
Later in the War Maunsell proposed bombardment vessels for the Normandy Invasion, more here.
There is a book on Maunsell: Maunsell the Firm and its Founder by Nigel Watson and Frank Turner. This tells the story of Maunsell’s career, much of it post-dates the Towers.
The Concrete Fleet website has a good five-part biography of Maunsell and there is a good biography here, by Hildenborogh History Group in Kent. Here is the ICE Obituary The Maunsell Forts Facebook group is also a source of information about Maunsell.
More on Roughs Tower:
Footnotes
- 1Watson, Nigel, and Frank Turner. Maunsell: The Firm and Its Founder. Hong Kong: AECOM Technology Corporation, 2005.
- 2Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 1: The World War Two Naval Sea Forts of the Thames Estuary. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1994.
- 3Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 2: The World War Two Army Sea Forts of the Thames & Mersey Estuaries. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1995.
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Image Sources and Credits
Image Credits and Sources
- Flash-Magazine: Page from Trinity House FLASH magazine
- 1Watson, Nigel, and Frank Turner. Maunsell: The Firm and Its Founder. Hong Kong: AECOM Technology Corporation, 2005.
- 2Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 1: The World War Two Naval Sea Forts of the Thames Estuary. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1994.
- 3Turner, Frank R. The Maunsell Sea Forts. Pt. 2: The World War Two Army Sea Forts of the Thames & Mersey Estuaries. Gravesend: F.R. Turner, 1995.
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Image Credits and Sources
- Flash-Magazine: Page from Trinity House FLASH magazine