D(avid) Alan Stevenson (1891--1971)

After completing his education at Edinburgh Academy, Alan, who was the son of Charles Stevenson, was commissioned into the Royal Marines as Captain during WWI. One of his missions was to erect lights in the Dardanelles Straits, the Turkish defensive positions that were assaulted by the Allies in 1915. In 1919 he became a partner in the family firm, the eighth and last engineer. Although he was not officially appointed as Engineer to the NLB, he carried out a great deal of work for them. His lifelong interest in lighthouses is reflected in his authorship of The World's Lighthouses before 1820, published in1959. At the time of his death, he was considered one of the world's greatest experts on the history of lighthouses.