Alexander Nimmo

Alexander Nimmo (1783–1832), civil engineer

1783 Born at Kirkcaldy, Fife, the son of a watchmaker who afterwards kept a hardware shop.

He was educated at Kirkcaldy grammar school, where he is said to have been brilliant.

In 1796–9 he attended Latin, Greek, mathematics, logic, ethics, and natural philosophy classes at St Andrews University and in 1799–1800, physics, ethics, and mathematics classes at Edinburgh University.

About 1810 Nimmo was then employed on the recommendation of Thomas Telford by the commission on the practicability of draining and cultivating the bogs in Ireland.

Nimmo was a protégé of Telford, coming to his notice as a competent person to accurately determine the boundaries of the northern counties of Scotland for the commissioners for highland roads and bridges.

In 1822 Nimmo was also appointed engineer for improving the western district of Ireland, mainly Connemara, where he built Corrib Lodge in the Maam valley as his residence.

During Nimmo's lifetime upwards of thirty piers or harbours were built under his direction on the Irish coast, and a harbour at Porthcawl in Glamorgan; the Wellesley Bridge and docks at Limerick were also designed by him.

From about 1823 Nimmo worked jointly with Thomas Telford and Robert Stevenson on the abortive Wallasey trans-Wirral ship canal in 1828. Later work included the St. Helen's and Runcorn Gap Railway, the Preston and Wigan Railway, and the Birkenhead and Chester Railway. He was engineer for the Liverpool and Leeds Railway and the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Railway.

1828 Alexander Nimmo, Dublin and London, Civil Engineer, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

1832 January 21st. Nimmo died at his home, 78 Marlborough Street, Dublin, aged forty-nine.

See Also

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• Further Reading: WILKINS, Noel P. [2009]; Alexander Nimmo: Master Engineer, 1783--1832 ; public works and civil surveys. Dublin; Portland, OR: Irish Academic Press / ISBN: 9780716529958

Sources of Information

• [1] DNB