Thomas Skinner

Major Thomas Bridges Boucher Skinner (22 May 1804 – 24 July 1877) was a British Army officer and engineer. He was a prominent road builder in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka).

Career

Skinner was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, on 22 May 1804, to William Thomas Skinner, a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Artillery, and his second wife Mary, daughter of Dr Monier of the Royal Artillery. In 1811, he moved to England with his father and studied in Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire. Dissatisfied with education, he went to Ceylon in 1819 to visit his father who was stationed in Trincomalee. There he was commissioned in Ceylon Rifle Regiment as a second lieutenant. His first job was to carry a platoon of soldiers from Trincomalee to Colombo, shortly after the 1818 rebellion that was not completely suppressed yet.

Soon after, Skinner was appointed to the public works department which is responsible for building the roads in the island. He gained his lifelong lasting fame for constructing the Colombo–Kandy highway. He was appointed as head of the Colombo defence guard in 1825, lieutenant quartermaster general and surveyor general in 1833, and commissioner of highways in 1841. He is also noted for mapping previously uncharted parts of Ceylon. On 19 December 1838, he married Georgina, daughter of Lieutenant-General George Burrell.