George Deacon

Who was George Deacon?

George Frederick Deacon was an English Civil Engineer. He was a pupil and lifelong friend of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin. He was Lord Kelvin's assistant on the SS Great Eastern cable-laying expedition. He was both borough engineer and water engineer to Liverpool from 1871 to 1880, and water engineer to the city from 1880 to 1890. During this latter period jointly with Thomas Hawksley he designed the Lake Vyrnwy scheme to supply Liverpool's water. In 1890 he established a consultancy in Westminster which designed waterworks for many UK towns. This merged with another firm to become Alexander Binnie & Sons, Deacon.

Amongst his inventions were the Deacon waste-water meter to locate water leakage, and electrical meters to measure river flow.

At the time of his death he was working on a scheme to provide water to Birkenhead from the River Alwen.