English railway pioneer and mechanical engineer who laid the first successful transatlantic cables.

After working under the pioneer railroad builders George and Robert Stephenson, Gooch was appointed, in 1837, locomotive superintendent of the Great Western Railway. In this capacity he developed such new and efficient locomotives as the “North Briton” (1846), which set a pattern for the engines of broad-gauged express trains. One of a new class of eight-wheeled locomotives (“Lord of the Isles”) was awarded a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1864 he left the Great Western, and during 1865–66, as director of a telegraph construction company, he superintended the laying of the first two transatlantic cables from England to the United States. For this achievement he was created a baronet in 1866. From 1865 to 1885 he served in Parliament.