Who was Thomas Bouch?

Thomas Bouch was born on 25th February 1822 in Thursby, Cumberland. He was educated at the village school, although his academic interest is said only to have been stirred by a lesson about moving water uphill. Thomas went on to spend three years as a boarder at the Academy School in Carlisle but the death of his father in 1838 led him to take up an apprenticeship with a firm of mechanical engineers based in Liverpool. Thomas quickly found the position unsuitable and returned to Thursby where he started a job as an assistant to George Larmer, a railway surveyor.

In the space of ten years, Bouch worked in a number of positions for several railway companies that were engaged in a period of rapid expansion. Shortly before he turned 27, he was appointed Engineer and Manager for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, despite his limited managerial experience. It was here that he distinguished himself by introducing roll-on-roll-off ferries. This operation soon attracted other railway engineers’ attention and no doubt gained Bouch a very favourable reputation.

On the back of this success, Bouch left the E&N railway in 1851 and began work as a consultant engineer, having been accepted as an Associate Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1850. In 1853, he married twenty-one-year-old Margaret Nelson. They had three children.

Working on a considerable number of projects, Bouch’s reputation within the railway industry grew. In 1869, a Bill was presented to Parliament for the building of the Tay Bridge. The Bill was passed in July of the following year and the construction process began with Bouch at the helm. However, things did not go to plan. Surveyors had indicated a foundation of bedrock but gravel was discovered instead. As a result, Bouch was forced to redesign his bridge in order to lighten the load on the foundations and the brick piers were replaced with cast iron columns. Despite this setback, the first train crossed the Tay on 26th September 1877, missing the planned completion date by just a matter of weeks.

After the crossing had been inspected and cleared for use in February 1878 by the Board of Trade, the North British Railway was free to open the bridge and did so at an official opening in the May. The Tay Bridge was the longest in the world and cut journey times between Edinburgh and Dundee by an hour. Bouch was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Dundee. The pinnacle of his career came when Queen Victoria crossed the Tay Bridge in June 1879 and went on to award Bouch a knighthood.

Sir Thomas was making plans for a crossing over the Firth of Forth and had reached the point of laying a foundation stone in September 1878. However, the fateful events of Sunday, 28 December and the subsequent inquiry’s results brought his career crashing to a halt. With the lion’s share of the burden of the accident placed on his shoulders, any hopes he might have had to rebuild the Tay Bridge were dashed. Bouch was released from the services of the North British Railway in July 1880 and by August his doctor had ordered him to take a period of complete rest. Despite an apparent recovery after two months of illness, Bouch took a turn for the worse, catching a cold which led to his death on 30th October 1880.