Patrick Meik

Who was Patrick Meik?

Patrick Meik was an English engineer and part of a minor engineering dynasty. His father Thomas Meik was also an engineer, as was Patrick's brother Charles Meik.

Both boys were born in Crowtree Road, Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland.

Patrick went to work for his father and worked on Meik's harbours at Burntisland and Bo'ness on the river Forth in Scotland before being asked by Sir Benjamin Baker to be resident engineer on the foundations and piers of the Forth Bridge. After this project, he moved to London to set up his own engineering practice.

In 1894, he was joined by his brother Charles and together they worked on a major commission to construct docks and a railway at Port Talbot, followed by an equally ambitious scheme to expand the port of Seaham, officially opened in 1905. The Meiks' expertise saw port and railway designs developed in many parts of the British Empire, including Christmas Island, India, Burma and Mozambique.

In the 1900s, their firm was commissioned to design the Kinlochleven hydroelectric scheme in the Scottish Highlands.