Thomas Evans Blackwell MICE FGS (28 July 1819 – 25 June 1863) was an English civil engineer.
[3] Blackwell was educated in mathematics by his godfather, Thomas Evans, who was vicar in Froxfield, Wiltshire.
[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.
[4] On 31 December 1856, the Government appointed him one of three commissioners to consider a London sewerage system for the Metropolitan Board of Works.
[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.
After Blackwell retired due to ill health in 1862,[4] he toured the United States before returning to England.
[4] Blackwell died of "chronic inflammation of the membranes of the spinal cord"[4] on 25 June 1863 while living in Warwick Square, Pimlico.