John David Gwynn

John David Gwynn (1907 to 1998) was an Irish civil engineer with a special interest in renewable energy generation, and in his youth one of Ireland's most distinguished cricketers. Born in Dublin, the eldest child of the academic Edward Gwynn, he studied civil engineering at Trinity College Dublin and while still an undergraduate worked for Siemens on the Shannon hydroelectric scheme. After graduating in 1930 he worked on Newport Bridge in Middlesbrough for Mott, Hay and Anderson, and from 1936 for Balfour Beatty, on the Piccadilly Line extension. From 1942 to 1944 he was in charge of building the Churchill Barriers in Scapa Flow, Orkney, and after the war he supervised hydroelectric schemes in the United Kingdom and overseas, serving as chief engineer for the Kainji Dam Project in Nigeria. He became a director of Balfour Beatty in 1963 and in retirement developed small stream-driven turbines and larger tidal power devices.