Painter and engineer, was born in Pengam, South Wales on 31 December 1920 and migrated to Australia with his family when he was three. He left school during the Depression aged 13 and worked at the BHP Port Kembla Steel Works. He began attending night classes in building construction in 1937 and taking correspondence courses in mathematics at London University. After completing his studies in structural and civil engineering, he moved to Hobart where he was appointed engineer in charge of power station designs with the HEC 1950-55. He studied part-time at Hobart Technical College under Jack Carington Smith in 1951-55, winning the Tasmanian Sesquicentenary Prize silver medal in 1954 and formally graduating in 1956, then did a part-time BA at the University of Tasmania in 1955-57. He won a commemorative medal for painting at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and did preliminary work towards a MA degree in Philosophy at Monash in 1969.
Tanner moved to Melbourne in 1957 to work as a chief engineer and later as a consulting engineer in private practice. He travelled to Europe in 1966-67 and also travelled extensively in Asia, the Middle East, UK, Ireland and the USA.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2011
