Thomas Evans Blackwell
Thomas Evans Blackwell MICE FGS (28 July 1819 – 25 June 1863) was an English civil engineer.[4] One of his first tasks was working with Isambard Kingdom Brunel when the canal was diverted to accommodate a cut for the new Great Western Railway (GWR).[5] In 1846, Blackwell petitioned Parliament to extend the Great Western Main Line (from its then-terminus at Newbury) to Hungerford;[6] the extension was built and opened the following year.[4] He worked on the docks at Birkenhead and the Port of Tyne, as well as waterworks systems in Bristol, Bath, Wolverhampton and Gloucester and similar projects in Reading, Sandgate, Devizes and Harwich.[14] Blackwell preserved watercolour sketches of the Canadian Government's Red River expedition to present-day Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba by William Henry Napier.[16] They had ten children, at least one of whom died in infancy: In the 1851 census, the family were living at 65 Great Pulteney Street in Bath, although Thomas was not listed as being present.[4] Blackwell died of "chronic inflammation of the membranes of the spinal cord"[4] on 25 June 1863 while living in Warwick Square, Pimlico.