Thomas Burnside Crowther
Thomas Burnside Crowther (1866-1900)
1901 Obituary [1]
THOMAS EURNSIDE CROWTHER, born on the 22nd December, 1866, was the second son of the late Mr. James Addington Crowther, of Mannamead, Plymouth.
In 1885 he became a pupil of Mr. James C. Inglis, under whom he was engaged on Compton Gifford drainage, Cattewater Harbour, and other works.
On the expiration of his pupilage in 1890, he was appointed an Assistant Engineer on the staff of the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway Company. Proceeding to Argentina, he was employed, in addition to general railway work, on surveys at Las Flores and Bahia Blanca Harbour, on the repair of the Naposta Bridge, and on the construction of the line from Quequen to Nicocbea, including a bridge over the River Quequen and a station at Nicochea.
In January, 1899, Mr. Crowther was appointed a District Engineer on the Western Railway of Havana, his special work being the erection of bridges at Palacios, Bacunaguas, and Rio Hondo, and of the Santa Clara Viaduct.
In the following May he became Chief Engineer of the line, in which capacity he erected a large goods warehouse at the Havana Terminus, and prepared plans for the entire re-arrangement and extension of the goods yards at Havana and Pinal del Rio.
Unfortunately his career was cut short by an attack of yellow fever, which proved fatal on the 1st October, 1900.
Mr. Crowther was a competent and resourceful Engineer, capable of great firmness but essentially reasonable. Although to strangers he may have appeared somewhat retiring in manner, a short acquaintance sufficed to discover his genial disposition.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Institution on the 8th January, 1895.