I. Early Career
Technical drawing of a dolphin beached in Chiswick, 1896
Edmund Walter Higley Halliday was born in Reading, Berkshire
in 1875, the eldest of five children. In the late 1870’s the family moved to
Bedminster, Somerset where his father, also Edmund Halliday, was employed as a
factory foreman. Subsequently, his father established his own business trading
as an iron merchant and mechanical engineer and by 1891, aged sixteen, Higley
was working as a mechanical engineer’s assistant which gave him a solid,
practical foundation in engineering which he would draw upon throughout his
career.
Given their proximity to Bristol, Higley and his father would
have regularly visited the city’s bustling docks and those of nearby Avonmouth
and Portishead, where ocean going ships, military
vessels and smaller coastal craft were to be found in abundance. Higley was
clearly fascinated by what he saw. In 1887 - aged twelve - he
produced some of his first technical drawings which were already fine examples
of draughtsmanship. One vessel that clearly caught his attention was the S. Y.
‘Cleopatra’ (ex ‘Semiranis’). He produced an ink drawing of Cleopatra’s
external elevation together with a line drawing of her Naphtha launch
from measurements taken on board. At around the same time, Higley drew the
lines of the Avondale lifeboat using the same technique.
Elevation, S. Y. 'Cleopatra' (ex 'Semiranis'), c. 1887
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S. Y. Cleopatra's Naphtha launch, 1887
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These drawings were followed by several of Halliday’s
original designs for sailing dinghy’s, the earliest, ‘Calabash’, dated 1889 was
followed by others of increasing sophistication throughout the
first half of the 1890’s. Around this time the family moved to Hammersmith and
when a dolphin was beached at Chiswick in 1896, Higley
produced a most unusual technical study - recording it’s lines,
external elevation and cross section.
'Calabash', Halliday's first sailing boat design, 1889
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Early design for a 12 ft. sailing dinghy, 1896
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J. I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd.
By the mid 1890’s Higley’s father was employed as a
steamboat inspector on the River Thames and Higley may have been
able to secure an apprenticeship with John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd. at their Church
Wharf site at Chiswick through his fathers' connections. Initially working as a draughtsman, Higley produced technical drawings of boilers and
steam plant and by the early 1900's was increasingly involved in the design
of steam launches and yachts. A number of these designs have
survived, including a steam launch for the
Nawab of Dacca. Also during this period, c. 1900, he successfully patented
“Halliday’s Steering Apparatus”, a novel invention incorporating three
propellers of which the largest was positioned immediately forward of the
rudder. This was the first of a number
of inventions Halliday patented in his early career.
Design for a 65 ft. steam launch, 1902. Stamped J. I. Thornycroft
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An early design for a 78 ft. steam launch for H. H. The Nawab of Dacca
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While steam launches and yachts appear to have been his
principal focus in his early years at Thornycroft’s, by 1902 Halliday was
increasingly involved in designing launches fitted with some of the earliest
marine motors. Thornycroft were at the forefront of developing the marine motor
and by 1903 Halliday had the good fortune to be working closely with Tom
Thornycroft designing some of the most innovative and high profile projects
within the firm.
Early design for a 33 ft. petrol motor launch, 1902