The Institution gained its
Royal Charter in March 1934. It was established at the
Ritz Hotel, London on 21 July 1908 as the Concrete Institute, as the result of a need to define standards and rules for the proper use of
concrete in the construction industry.
H. Kempton Dyson was one of the founder members and the first permanent secretary. On 22 February 1909, the Institution was incorporated under the Companies Acts 1862–1907 as a company limited by guarantee not having a capital divided into shares. It was renamed the Institution of Structural Engineers in 1922, when its areas of interest were extended to cover 'structures' of all kinds. By 1925 the Institution had 1,700 members and has continued to grow over the years. It has fifty groups worldwide. The first woman member to be elected as an Associate member was
Florence Mary Taylor in 1926. It took until 1947 for
Mary Irvine to be the first women to be elected a Chartered Member, and until 1954 when
Marjem Chatterton was the first woman elected as a Fellow. The Institution awards the
Gold Medal annually, for outstanding contributions to the advancement of structural engineering. The first award was made in 1922 to Henry Adams. ==Presidents==