Thomas Smith (1752-1815)

Born in Ferryport-on-Craig in Fife, Thomas  was brought up by his mother, his father having drowned during Thomas’s infancy. At the age of 12, he was apprenticed to a Dundee metalworker, and proved to be extremely gifted. In 1770 he moved to Edinburgh and, by 1781, he was trading as an ironsmith, manufacturing lamps and other metalwork. In 1787 Thomas won a contract to provide the lighting for the Old and New Towns in Edinburgh, having designed a new type of oil lamp incorporating reflectors behind the light, that provided far superior illumination to any used previously. He subsequently secured contracts to supply lighting for other Scottish cities and, by 1810, the lamps that he manufactured provided the lighting for Perth, Stirling, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Leith.

Aware of the application of his invention to lighthouses, Thomas approached the recently-formed Northern Lighthouse Trust (now the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB)). The Trustees were impressed with his inventiveness and arranged for him to gain experience working with an English lighthouse-builder; on his return, they appointed him as their first Engineer. This post would be held by succeeding generations of his family, who served the NLB while running, in parallel, their own increasingly successful engineering business.

Following devastating storms in 1782, a parliamentary committee concluded that four lighthouses should be built at key points around the Scottish coast (Kinnaird Head, North Ronaldsay, Eilean Glas and the Mull of Kintyre). Thomas had the mammoth task of building, staffing and lighting these lighthouses, each of which was to be supplied with his lamps. His success is remarkable, given his lack of experience, and is testimony to his ingenuity, energy and tenacity. He was subsequently involved with many other lighthouse projects but, by 1800, he had passed on the major responsibility for lighthouse work to his apprentice,