SON of John Biles and Margaret Groombridge, the Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University was born at Portsmouth in 1854. He was educated at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Engineering, and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. For a time he was engaged in the Admiralty Construction Department, and is by profession a consulting naval architect. For ten years, till 1890, he was naval architect and manager in Clydebank Shipbuilding yard, and designed, among other vessels of war and commerce, the Paris and New York of the American line. He is Vice-President of the Institution of Naval Architects, M.I.C.E., M.I.Mech.E., and of the Society of Naval Architects, U.S.A. He is also an Hon. Member of the Japanese Society of Naval Architects. His attainments were recognised by Yale University with the degree of LL.D.
    In his frequent travels he has visited France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain, in Europe, as well as Japan, China, Egypt, Canada, and the United States. As might be expected, he is a devotee of yachting. By his wife, Emma Jane, daughter of the late Richard Lloyd, he has a son and two daughters.

Back to Index of Glasgow Men (1909)