Bouch, Thomas (1822-1880)

English civil engineer. He became manager and engineer of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway in 1849 and designed the first Tay Bridge, finished in 1877. The Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, when the bridge and a train crossing it were blown into the river, caused him shock and led to his death the following year.

Bouch was born in Thursley, Cumberland, and embarked on his career in 1839, later working on the Stockton and Darlington railway. To him the Forth and Tay owe their ‘floating railways’. He was knighted and received the freedom of Dundee after completing the Tay Bridge.