The UK’s first female chartered civil engineer

Dorothy was the first female member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (‘ICE’), elected in 1927.

When she sat her admission exam at the ICE, there was another woman present, which initially made Dorothy think that she might not become the first female member, but the other woman turned out to be an ICE-provided chaperone.

The Institution’s first president was Thomas Telford (1757-1834), also from the Langholm area, whose bridge-building provided Dorothy with early inspiration

Her biography on the Institution’s website includes a video about the dedication of a former boardroom to her in 2019.

She was the youngest of five children of Langholm’s parish minister Rev James Buchanan and his wife Marion. She attended the local school, then gained a BSc in civil engineering from Edinburgh University in 1922.

She worked mostly on bridge designs for Dorman Long & Co. Her projects included:

• Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia
• King George V Bridge (now Tyne Bridge), Newcastle
• Lambeth Bridge, London
• Dessouk Bridge, Egypt
• Omdurman Bridge, Sudan
• Silent Valley Dam, Northern Ireland

There is a blue plaque for her on the southwest tower of the Tyne Bridge:

Dorothy married civil engineer William Fleming from Edinburgh in Chelsea, London, in 1930. She resigned from engineering, later saying that ‘I could not do two jobs well at once.’ They lived for a while in Cheshire, where William worked on electricity distribution.

In later life, Dorothy was a mountain hiker and painter. She died in Nailsea, Somerset (home of The Wurzels), aged 85.

Born	Langholm, 1899
Parents	James Buchanan (1843-1921), Marion Vassie (1863-1930)
Siblings	Youngest of 3 sisters and 2 brothers
Marriage	William Fleming (1901-1986)
Children	–
Died	22 Meadway Avenue, Nailsea, 1985, aged 85