Royal Academy of Arts to that drawn up by Cheere in 1755. It was Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect and head of the British government's architects' department, the Office of Works, who used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support for the Academy in 1768. The painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president, and Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788. The instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of
Royal Academy of Engineering Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first Senior Fellow and, , remains so. The Fellowship was incorporated and granted a Royal Charter on 17 May 1983 and became the Royal Academy of Engineering on 16 March 1992. It is governed according to the Charter and associated Statutes and Regulations (as amended from time to time). Conceived in the late 1960s, during the Apollo space programme and