Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/14

 professional work Bouch constructed a number of remarkable bridges, chiefly in connection with railways. At Newcastle-on-Tyne he designed the Redheugh viaduct, a compound or stiffened-suspension bridge of four spans, two of 260 feet and two of 240 feet each. In his principal railway bridges, independent of the Tay bridge, were the Deepdale and Beelah viaduct on the South Durham and Lancashire railway, the Bilston Burn bridge on the Edinburgh, Loanhead, and Roslin line, and a bridge over the Esk near Montrose. In all these bridges the lattice girder was used, because of its simplicity and its slight resistance to the wind encountered at such high elevations.

In 1863 the first proposals for a Tay bridge were made public, but the act of parliament was not obtained until 1870. The Tay bridge, which crossed the estuary from Newport in Fife to the town of Dundee, was within a few yards of two miles long. It consisted of eighty-five spans—seventy-two in the shallow water, and thirteen over the fairway channel, two of these being 227 feet, and eleven 245 feet wide. The system of wrought-iron lattice girders was adopted throughout. After many delays the line was completed from shore to shore on 22 Sept. 1877. The inspection of the work by Major-general Coote Synge Hutchinson, R.E., on behalf of the board of trade, occupied three days, and on 31 May 1878 the bridge was opened with much ceremony. The engineer was then presented with the freedom of the town of Dundee, and on 26 June 1879 he was knighted. The traffic was continued uninterruptedly till the evening of Sunday, 28 Dec. 1879, when during a violent hurricane the central portion of the bridge fell into the river Tay, carrying with it an entire train and its load of about seventy passengers, all of whom lost their lives. Under the shock and distress of mind caused by this catastrophe Bouch's health rapidly gave way, and he died at Moffat on 30 Oct. 1880. The rebuilding of the Forth bridge was begun in 1882. Bouch became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 3 Dec. 1850, and was advanced to the class of member on 11 May 1858. He married, July 1853, Miss Margaret Ada Nelson, who survived him with one son and two daughters. His brother, Mr. William Bouch, was long connected with the locomotive department of the Stockton and Darlington and North Eastern lines.

 BOUCHER, JOHN (1777–1818), divine, was born in 1777. He was entered at St. John's, Oxford; proceeded B.A. on 23 May 1799 (Cat. Grad. Oxon. p. 71); was elected fellow of Magdalen at the same time (Preface to his Sermons, p. 1); was admitted to holy orders in 1801 (ib. p. 5), and proceeded M.A. on 29 April 1802. At this time he became rector of Shaftesbury, and in 1804 vicar of Kirk Newton, near Wooler, Northumberland. He married and had several children. He preached not only in his own parish, but in the neighbouring district. One of his sermons was delivered at Berwick-on-Tweed in 1810, and another at Belford in 1816. He died on 12 Nov. 1818, at Kirk Newton. There is a tablet to his memory on the north wall of the church where he was buried (, Churches of Lindisfarne, p. 73). After his death a 12mo volume of his 'Sermons' was printed, dedicated to Shute Barrington, bishop of Durham. The volume reached a second edition in 1821.

 BOUCHER, JOHN (1819–1878), divine, born in 1819, was the son of a tenant-farmer in Moneyrea, North Ireland. Intended for the unitarian ministry (in accordance with the theological views of his parents), he was carefully educated, and in 1837 was sent to the Belfast Academy, then under Drs. Montgomery and J. Scott Porter. Leaving the academy in 1842, Boucher became minister at Southport; next at Glasgow; and finally, in 1848, at the New Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney, where for five years his fervour and eloquence drew full congregations from all parts of the metropolis. In 1850 Boucher published a sermon on 'The Present Religious Crisis,' and the 'Inquirer' speaks of another of the same year on 'Papal Aggression.' About this time Boucher adopted rationalistic views; but he soon afterwards changed his opinions again, resigned his pulpit in 1853, and entered himself at St. John's, Cambridge, to read for Anglican orders. He proceeded B.A. in 1857 (, Grad. Cant. p. 46), and it was hoped that he would have a brilliant career in the establishment; but his health failed; he left Cambridge, and leading the life of a thorough invalid in the neighbourhood, at Chesterton, for many years, he died 12 March 1878, aged 59. He was one of the trustees of Dr. Williams's library, till his 