Thomas Robert Winder
Thomas Robert Winder (1817-1883)
1883 Obituary [1]
THOMAS ROBERT WINDER was born at Gate-beck, Westmoreland, in 1817, and was educated successively at Prestonpatrick and Kirkland.
He served an apprenticeship of five years, 1834-39, in the works of Thomas Winder and Co., at Low Mill, Westmoreland, principally occupied in the application of water as a motive power, and partly under Mr. Perry, when surveying tho country between Lancaster and Carlisle for railway promotion, and in the construction of a section of the Lancaster and Preston Railway, after which he assisted in laying out the railway through Wakefield.
He next for many years had responsible charge for the contractors of the execution of extensive works on portions of the Great Western Railway in 1839-43 ; the Eastern Counties in 1843-45 ; the Southampton and Dorchester in l845-47; the East Anglian and the North London Railways, and the Plymouth Great Western Dock in 1847-50; the Wolverhampton Railway in 1850-52; the entrance to the West India Docks in 1852-53 ; a railway bridge over the Medway, and a quay at Rochester, in 1854-56 ; and the Admiralty Pier Works, at Dover in 1856-59. He was also employed, in 1883-54, as Engineer, in conjunction with Sir John Rennie, to the Netherlands Land Reclamation Co., and at a later date as Engineer for Rye Harbour: Subsequently he was engaged in making surveys and estimates in Malta, Sicily, Holland, and Cornwall. Here he carried out, from his own designs, the Harbour and Dock Works at the port of Pentewan.
At the time of his death, on the 11th of October, 1882, he had been Resident Engineer for eight years, under Mr. J. Fowler, Past-President Inst. C.E., and the late Mr. R. J. Ward, M. Inst. C.E., on the Rosslare Harbour Works, and the Waterford and Wexford Railway, the latter of which was just completed. Mr. Winder was a man of mature experience, upright, and conscientious, and always took great pains to explain in detail to those by whom he was employed everything relating to the work under his charge, and he combined with a thorough knowledge of his profession as a Civil Engineer, the very valuable qualification of keeping clear accounts.