Background
Blyth was born at 26 Minto Street in Street Cuthbert"s parish, Edinburgh to Robert Brittain Blyth, an iron merchant, and his wife, Barbara, maiden name Cooper.
Blyth was born at 26 Minto Street in Street Cuthbert"s parish, Edinburgh to Robert Brittain Blyth, an iron merchant, and his wife, Barbara, maiden name Cooper.
In 1854, after his brother Edward Lawrence Ireland Blyth finished his own apprenticeship with Grainger & Miller, Benjamin took him into partnership of the renamed B & East Blyth.
Blyth was trained as a railway engineer under an apprenticeship with Grainger & Miller, a railway contractor. In 1848 he established an engineering practice on the prestigious George Street (at no 124) in Edinburgh where it would remain for the next 100 years. The practice did work for the Caledonian, Glasgow and South Western, Scottish Central, Dundee and Perth, Great North of Scotland and Portpatrick railway companies.
Blyth was a first cousin of Arthur Blyth, who was three times premier of South Australia in the 19th century.
Their fathers were brothers. Blyth married Mary Dudgeon Wright in Leith, Edinburgh, on 1 August 1848.
Mary took on clerical duties in the early stages of Blyth"s company. From 1854 they lived at 12 Hope Terrace, Edinburgh.
His house served as the offices of Scottish Natural Heritage between 1950 and 2003 then reverted to its use as a family home.
The harbour engineer, William Dyce Cay, worked under Blyth on the Castle Douglas to Portpatrick Railway in 1861.