Dorothy Donaldson Buchanan was the daughter of a church minister from Eskdale.
She was accepted to study civil engineering at Edinburgh University and then worked for Ralph Freeman, the bridge-building consultant engineer for Dorman Long, who built the Sydney and Tyne Bridges.
Her story is featured in a new book by Paul Brown, ‘Tyne Bridge’.
Tweeting about the remarkable woman, he said: “Dorothy stated her profession as “designer and draughtsman” and worked on “intricate mathematical calculations and drawings” for the steelwork on the Sydney Harbour and Tyne Bridges.
“It was said she was regarded as a curiosity by her male colleagues, who “came to gawp”.
In 1927, during her work on the Tyne Bridge, she became the first woman among 10,000 men to be granted membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers:
Accepting the honour, she expressed hopes she would be followed by many others.
However, Brown says that her time in engineering was short-lived and she gave up her career after marrying electrical engineer William Fleming in 1930, after which she settle down to become a housewife.
