Eric William Driver was born in Plymouth in 1911 to William Weale Driver and his wife, Sarah Ann. The Drivers had strong connections with the Plymouth area where his father was employed at the Devonport dockyard and several of his relations served in the Royal Navy. When William Driver was promoted to the civilian engineering staff of the Admiralty in London, the family moved to Balham in South London where Eric attended Strand School and then obtained a degree in civil engineering at King’s College London. He first worked for a firm of steelwork contractors where he learnt how to design and erect structures which were adequate for purpose but as economical as possible in an intensely competitive market.
With the Second World War on the horizon, Driver was somewhat mystified to be invited to join a very small organisation quartered in a hut just outside the fence of Imperial Chemical Industries’ (ICI) Runcorn Works. This was in fact a government organisation with a very low profile concerned with poison gas factories, using ICI’s chemical engineering expertise. Eric was soon engaged in building these factories, taking overall control of a number of projects. This was a considerable responsibility for a young engineer still in his 20s. He confounded the men from the Ministry, who had given instructions about the maximum amount of steel to be used, by producing a design with only a little more than half the specified limit. Although a considerable quantity of mainly mustard gas was produced, happily none of it was ever needed and the stock was eventually destroyed. The remains of one of the factories, the Rhydymwyn Valley Works, Clwyd still exist. The site was first used for gas production and storage, but part of it later played an early role in the Tube Alloys (nuclear weapons) programme. It has now been decontaminated and turned into a nature reserve . Driver’s specialised knowledge of the site and its history was invaluable for the clean-up process. He became President of the Rhydymwyn Valley History Society.
At the end of the war Eric joined the “real” staff of ICI, in due course becoming chief civil engineer of Mond Division where he carried out several difficult engineering projects including the construction of new chemical plants and the maintenance and refurbishment of others which were often highly contaminated with corrosive and hazardous materials. He carried out a particularly tricky shaft-sinking exercise in highly unstable ground in the narrow space between an existing plant and a canal. Probably his best-known achievement was the management of design and construction of ICI’s ethylene pipeline from Teesside to Runcorn, one of the first such projects in the UK. His expertise in this considerably outstripped that of the official inspectors.
Driver retired as chief civil engineer in 1973 and was quickly recruited to the Mersey Regional Health Authority, soon becoming chairman of the authority and of the NHS National Staff Side Committee (Works). His appointment was unusual because he was at the time the only one of the 14 regional chairmen without any party political affiliation. Merseyside then had a particular problem which made him the best man for the job. The Region had a large hospital-building programme which was badly stalled because of management and labour-relations difficulties. Building the very large new Royal Liverpool University Hospital in the middle of the City had begun but come virtually to a halt. Eric applied his expertise in project management and a robust approach to labour relations so that this project and other NHS buildings were completed without any undue further delay. For this he earned the thanks of both Labour and Conservative health ministers. He was knighted in 1979 and retired in 1982.
Driver was an expert yachtsman and competitive dinghy sailor, winning 14 races at national level in England and Wales. His civil engineering skills were put to good use rebuilding the jetties of the Budworth Sailing Club. He was also Cheshire County Chess champion. With increasing age he turned more to playing bridge, at which he was also an able and competitive player.
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Eric Driver was married first to Winifred Bane in 1938 and secondly to Sheila Mary Johnson in 1972. He is survived by his second wife and two daughters from his first marriage.
Sir Eric Driver, civil engineer and Mersey Regional Health Authority chairman, was born on January 19, 1911. He died on June 4, 2010, aged 99