Thomas Gibson (1843-1899)
Thomas Gibson (1843-1899)
Died 1899 aged 56. [1]
1900 Obituary [2]
THOMAS GIBSON, born at Earsdon, Northumberland, in 1843, commenced his career in the office of Messrs. Saunders and Mitchell, of Westminster. While with that firm he was employed on the construction of the Madras Pier and other screw-pile structures.
On returning from Madras he assisted his father in several screw-pile and screw-mooring contracts for the London and other docks and various harbours in the United Kingdom until the year 1867, when he was engaged by Messrs. McClean and Stileman for work on the Furness Railway.
In 1869 he was appointed Resident Engineer under the late Sir Thomas Bouch on the Redheugh Bridge, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the completion of which he returned to Furness.
In 1874 he was instructed by Mr. (now Sir George) Bruce, Past-President, to superintend the erection of the Rio Tinto Company’s pier at Huelva, Spain, on which work he read a Paper before the 1nstitution.
After a short stay in England he returned to Spain on the Seville and Huelva Railway, having charge of the bridgework, which included a five-span bridge carried on cylinder piers over the Guadalquiver at Seville, beside eleven other structures over the waterways along the line.
On his return to England he went into business for himself, carrying out several contracts, among which may be mentioned the foundations for G and H warehouses in Victoria Dock, the underpinning and straightening of the walls and clock-tower of the Town Hall, Great Yarmouth - a description of which by Mr. F. E. Duckham appeared in the Proceedings of the Institution and the erection of a 230-foot span bridge for the Rio Tinto Railway Company at Salamon, of a bridge over the River Lea for the Carpenters’ Company, and of coal viaducts for the Gas Light and Coke Company at Beckton.
His last contract was for life-boat slipways at Margate for the Royal National Life-boat Institution, in the carrying out of which he was caused much worry and anxiety owing to the gales of the winter of 1897 sweeping away the staging and temporary works on two occasions. His health was thoroughly undermined, and diabetic symptoms began to appear which rapidly took a virulent form and from which he died on the 11th June, 1899.
He was elected an Associate of the Institution on the 5th May, 1868, and was subsequently placed in the class of Associate Members.