Sir Thomas Matthews (1849 - 13 January 1930) was an English civil engineer, who was a notable builder of lighthouses. He was the brother of Sir William Matthews, also a prominent civil engineer. During the late 19th and early 20th century Thomas Matthews was the Engineer-in-Chief of Trinity House.
Thomas Matthews was born in Penzance, Cornwall, where he was the son of the Borough Surveyor, John Matthews. In 1874, he entered the employment of the United Kingdom's lighthouse service, Trinity House, as an assistant engineer, and succeeded Sir James Nicholas Douglass as Engineer-in-Chief when the latter retired in 1892.
Matthews went on to design over a dozen lighthouses for Trinity House. He also worked on illumination systems, notably a lamp designed to burn oil vapour.
Matthews' most significant achievement was the construction of Beachy Head Lighthouse. Completed in 1902, it was the last rock lighthouse built by Trinity House. The work took 2 years to finish; it involved building a coffer-dam and an aerial ropeway from the cliffs to transport materials.[1]