Person    | Male  Born 8/6/1724  Died 28/10/1792

John Smeaton

Categories: Engineering

Civil engineer. Born and died at Austhorpe Lodge, Whitkirk, near Leeds. In 1748 he moved to London initially at Great Turnstile and set up in business first as a scientist and maker of instruments but he soon got involved in engineering projects.

Considered by some the "father of civil engineering". Designed bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. His most famous work being the third Eddystone Lighthouse, which became the model for all other lighthouses, and appeared on the tail of the old penny, behind Britannia.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
John Smeaton

Commemorated ati

Ship Tavern

Founded: AD 1549. Rebuilt: AD 1923 The Ship Tavern This tavern was establ...

Read More

Skempton Building plaques

2018: Eamonn Doyle has written to correct our "east to west", saying that the...

Read More

Other Subjects

Frederick Handley Page

Frederick Handley Page

Aircraft designer and manufacturer. His company manufactured the Halifax bombers used in WW2.

Person, Aviation, Engineering, Transport

1 memorial
William Oxtoby, A.M.I.C.E.

William Oxtoby, A.M.I.C.E.

Appointed Surveyor/Engineer for the Borough of Camberwell c.1898. William Oxtoby was born on 7 February 1862 in Hull, Yorkshire. He was the fourth of the five children of Robert Oxtoby (1823-1874)...

Person, Architecture, Engineering

2 memorials
George Robert Welby Wheeler, AMICE

George Robert Welby Wheeler, AMICE

George Robert Welby Wheeler was born on 20 November 1845 in Bermondsey, Surrey (now Greater London), the eldest of the six children of George Charles Wheeler (1820-1886) and Charlotte Wheeler née W...

Person, Architecture, Engineering, Liveries & Guilds

1 memorial
Major Allan Beckett

Major Allan Beckett

Civil engineer. Born Allan Harry Beckett in East Ham. He designed the 'whale' floating roadways which were a crucial part of the Mulberry harbours that were used in the Normandy Landings in June 19...

Person, Engineering

1 memorial
John Kemp Starley

John Kemp Starley

Inventor and industrialist, who sold the first recognizably modern bicycle. Starley went into business with William Sutton, with the intention of producing bicycles that were safe and easy to use. ...

Person, Commerce, Engineering

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Billy Bunter

Billy Bunter

Character in a series of stories set in Greyfriars School, originally published in the boys weekly story magazine 'The Magnet'.

Fiction, Children, Fictional

1 memorial
Arthur White

Arthur White

Resident of the Central Ward, Hendon who served and died in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Nelly Power

Nelly Power

N1, Southgate Road, 97

Nelly Power (1854 - 1887) actress & singer, lived here. The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator