Thomas Bouch

Sir Thomas Bouch (1822 to 1880) was a British railway engineer, born at Thursby in Cumberland, who is remembered chiefly for the first Tay Rail Bridge. He worked early on for the North British Railway, helped design parts of Edinburgh Waverley station, and then set up as an independent consultant, building the line to St Andrews and railway bridges at Belah and Deepdale on a cross-Pennines route. He also designed the ferry slip for the world's first train ferry, between Granton and Burntisland, and the Hownes Gill Viaduct at Consett. The Tay Bridge opened in 1878 and brought him a knighthood in 1879, but it collapsed in strong winds on 28 December 1879 with the loss of 75 lives. The public inquiry judged the bridge badly designed, built and maintained, and Bouch was blamed as its engineer. His design for a Forth Bridge was abandoned, and he died in 1880 and is buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.