Tay Rail Bridge of Dundee "in respect of his meritorious services as engineer of the bridge. ..." On 20 June 1879, Queen Victoria crossed the bridge during her return south from staying at Balmoral; Bouch was presented to her before she did so. On 26 June 1879, he was knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle. On the night of 28 December 1879 at 7.15 pm, the bridge collapsed after its central spans gave way during high winter gales. A train with six carriages carrying seventy-five passengers and crew, crossing at the time of the collapse, plunged into the icy waters of the
Tay Bridge disaster anomalously high because of peculiarities of the site (one of the highest points on the Wirral.<ref name="The Wirral Hundred/The Wirral Peninsula"></ref>): a wind pressure of would overturn railway carriages and such events were a rarity. (To give a subsequent, well documented example, in 1903 a stationary train "was" overturned on the Levens viaduct but this was by a 'terrific gale' measured at Barrow in Furness to have an average velocity of , estimated to be gusting up to .) A new double-track Tay Bridge was built by the NBR, designed by Barlow and built by William Arrol & Co. of