"...Telford became renowned as the father of civil engineering and was the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers"

• Born Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire August 9th 1757

• Aged 14, apprenticed to a local stonemason

• In 1782 moved to London, involved in the building of Somerset House under
• architect Sir William Chambers

• In 1787, through wealthy patron, Sir William Pulteney, MP for Shrewsbury, became the first
• Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire

• In 1793 appointed engineer for the Ellesmere Canal, this incorporated the
• spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

• Consultant on the rebuilding of London Bridge - 1800

• 1801 engineer for the Caledonian Canal in Scotland and 920 miles of new roads
• and 32 new churches in Scotland

• 1810 engineer for the Gota canal in Sweden

• Improvement of the Holyhead Road through Shropshire and North Wales and
• construction of the Menai Suspension Bridge 1819-1826

• 1820 Appointed first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers

• Designed and built London's St Katherine Docks 1824-1828

• 1826-1835 Construction of the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal
• (today part of the Shropshire Union Canal)

• Died 1834 at the age of 77, buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey