Sir Walter Eric Bassett descends from #184B Bassett line as follows:
William Bassett (b. 1480)
John Bassett (b. 1509) and wife Joanne
Henry Bassett and wife Joan Vane
Thomas Bassett (b. 1566) and wife Kateryne Inchcome
Michael Bassett (b. 1602) and wife Ann Killick
John Bassett (b. 1646) and wife Anne Cronke
John Bassett (b. 1695) and wife Elizabeth Saxby
Thomas Bassett (b. 1747) and wife Martha Denman
William Bassett (b. 1781) and wife Mary Pearson
Adam Bassett (b. 1811) and wife Sarah Ann Dison
Frederick Alfred Bassett (b. 1837) and wife Charlotte Agnes Farris
Walter Bassett (b. 1865) and wife Caroline Loxton
Sir Walter Eric Bassett (b. 1892)
Pictures provided by granddaughter Jane Young
Walter Eric Bassett, World War
Bassett, Sir Walter Eric (1892-1978), engineer, was born on 19 December 1892 at Hawthorn, Melbourne, son of Walter Bassett, salesman, and his wife Caroline, nee Loxton, both English born. Young Bassett was educated at Wesley College and at the University of Melbourne (B.E., 1916; M.Mech.E., 1927). Commissioned in the Australian Imperial Force on 30 September 1915 and posted to the 5th Field Company, Engineers, he embarked on 23 November 1915 for Egypt and served on the Western Front. On the night of 4/5 August 1916 at Pozieres, France, he won the Military Cross for constructing machine-gun emplacements in captured trenches and for digging a communication trench while under heavy fire. He transferred as lieutenant to the Australian Flying Corps on 19 April 1917 and served with No. 40 Squadron. Wounded in action on 1 June, he was evacuated to England and declared permanently unfit for service. After his appointment terminated on 28 January 1918, he studied aeronautics. He returned to Melbourne with a seriously damaged hip which necessitated the use of one or two walking sticks for the rest of his life.
On 25 January 1923 Bassett married with Methodist forms Flora Marjorie ‘Marnie’ (q.v. Bassett) at the university residence of her father Sir David Masson (q.v.10). Bassett had joined the staff of the university’s engineering school in 1919: he lectured in mechanical engineering and aerodynamics, and organized the building of the first wind tunnel in Australia. Enjoying the right of private practice and a growing reputation as an engineer, he was consulted by an increasing number of architects about projects which required the heating and ventilation of such buildings as St Paul’s Cathedral chapter house, Frankston Orthopaedic Hospital, and the Melbourne and Williamstown town halls.
In 1928 Bassett began a full-time consulting engineering practice, W.E. Bassett & Partners. During the Depression his office designed and supervised the construction of steam, heating, hot-water and ventilation services in St Vincent’s, the Austin, Epworth and Mercy hospitals, Melbourne, and in the Wangaratta hospital, as well as in office buildings and store for G.J. Coles (q.v) throughout Australia, and in many smaller city buildings. Among his dearly designs was the full air-conditioning of the Bank of New South Wale’s new headquarters in Melbourne, using a 50-ton R carbon dioxide machine. Later, the first centrifugal machines to be used in Australia were the Bassett-designed installations in Parliament House, Adelaide, and in the head office of the Courier-Mail, Brisbane. He completed industrial commissions for Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd and Ford Motor Co. Ltd, and at MacRoberton’s (q.v.11 Robertson) Pty Ltd where a 650-psi (4.4 megapascals) boiler was installed. By 1939 the practice had opened offices in New South Wales.
During World War II Bassett was chairman of the Army Mechanization Board and a member of the Commonwealth Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. His practice was involved in work for the Department of Aircraft Production, the Allied Works Council, various munition buildings and the new military hospitals located in each State. For the Royal Australian Air Force, he designed and installed six low-pressure chambers to enable personnel to be trained for high-altitude operations. He was commissioned by Commonwealth Serum Laboratories to assist with the installation of a bottle-fermentation plant for penicillin production.
The decade 1945-55 marked a period of postwar recovery. Bassett’s office was responsible for building services in country hospitals and in numerous factories that sprang up or were relocated in the outer suburbs. He also provided large, high-pressure, hot-water boilers for General Motors-Holden’s (q.v.9) Ltd and the bagasse incinerator boilers for the Queensland sugar industry.
His practice had employed a staff of two in 1928; by his retirement in 1917, the staff numbered two hundred and fifty, located in nine offices, with three associated companies overseas. Bassett retained control of ‘things technical and things business’, but, to ensure the continuity of a professional organization, he allowed junior engineers with ability to progress to senior level and partnership, regardless of their ‘parents or finance’. Thus the firm prospered through the post-1955 boom years. Bassett remained an active consultant until his death.
A member of the engineering faculty of the University of Melbourne until 1957, Bassett won its Kernot (q.v.5) medal in 1948. He contributed to the establishment of a degree course in aeronautical engineering in Sydney and to the establishment of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne. In 1958 he joined the interim council of Monash University: through its building committee, he had much to do with the original planning; he was to be a member of its first council and its engineering faculty until 1937; the main lecture theatre in the engineering school bears his name. Bassett was awarded honorary doctorates in engineering (Monash University, 1970) and of laws (University of Melbourne, 1974).
Knighted in 1959, Bassett was active in professional and community affairs. A foundation member and president (1942) of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, he had received its (Sir) Peter Nicol Russell (q.v.6) medal for 1958. He was an honorary member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (from 1973) and a member of the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria Ltd (1951-75). His company directorships included Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co. Ltd (president 1969-74), Renison Ltd (chairman 1958-68), the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd and several fertilizer companies. Sir Walter was a trustee and sometime chairman of the Museum of Applied Science in Melbourne, and an honorary consultant and member of the finance committee of the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. In 1963 he was elected president of the Melbourne Club. He was also foundation president of the Copper Producer’s Association of Australia.
Bassett was a forceful and decisive character who found it hard to tolerate foolishness, but was forgiving of ignorance. The uninformed he set out to educate, lucidly and patiently. He had an uncanny knack of grasping the salient problems and of solving them at the outset. A formidably competent person, he succeeded in his work, and in his recreations which included sailing, fishing, golf and woodwork. His life, perhaps more than that of most men, was a joint affair. In the Bassett home he and Marnie created an environment of singular quality – warm and hospitable, stimulating and interesting. He died on 8 March 1978 at Toorak and was cremated. His wife, daughter and a son survived him; his elder son was drowned in World War II. J. Carington Smith’s (q.v) portrait of Sir Walter is held by the University of Melbourne.
Sir William Eric Bassett with William Slim, Governor General of Australia
10 Nov 1959