chairman of the Australian Army's Mechanisation Board and as a member of the Commonwealth Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. His firm carried out works for the government, installing equipment at aircraft production facilities, munitions facilities and military hospitals. He also installed six low-pressure chambers for training Royal Australian Air Force personnel in high-altitude operations and assisted in the installation of a penicillin fermentation plant for the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. In 1942 he served as president of the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust), of which he had been a founding member in 1919. Bassett's firm prospered in the post-war recovery, carrying out works in rural hospitals and newly built factories, including for Holden and the Queensland sugar industry. From 1951 to 1975 he was a member of the government-owned Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria. In 1958 Bassett received the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal from the IEAust. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1959 Birthday Honours for public services. By 1971 Bassett's engineering practice employed 250 people in nine offices and had three associate companies overseas. Bassett retired in 1971 but continued to provide advice on a consultancy basis until his death. Other interests Bassett was a director of Renison from 1958 to 1968 and of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company from 1969 to 1974. He was also director of Colonial Mutual and several fertiliser companies. In 1963 he was elected president of the Melbourne Club. In 1973 he was appointed an honorary member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and was the founding president of the Copper Producers' Association of Australia. He was also a trustee and member of the finance committee of the Melbourne Museum of Applied Science and an honorary consultant to and member of the finance committee at the Parkes Observatory. In his spare time he enjoyed sailing, fishing, golf and woodwork. Bassett died at Toorak on 8 March 1978 and was cremated. The main lecture theatre at the engineering school at Monash University is named in Bassett's honour. W. E. Bassett and Partners was bought by AECOM in 2004. References 1892 births 1978 deaths Australian Army officers Australian aviators Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Australian military personnel of World War I Australian recipients of the Military Cross Engineers from Melbourne University of Melbourne faculty University of Melbourne alumni Monash