Thomas Telford, FRS FRSE

Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and road, bridge and canal builder.

• Established himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire.
• Designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well as harbours and tunnels.
• Dubbed The Colossus of Roads (a pun on the Colossus of Rhodes), and, reflecting his command of all types of civil engineering in the early 19th century
• Elected as the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held for 14 years until his death.
• Born on 9 August 1757 at Glendinning, a hill farm 3 miles east of Eskdalemuir Kirk, in the rural parish of Westerkirk, in Eskdale, Dumfriesshire.
• Father - John Telford, a shepherd, died soon after Thomas was born.
• Thomas was raised in poverty by his mother Janet Jackson (died 1794).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Telford#cite_note-Waterston-1