Richard Henry Brunton

For the British-American artist, see Richard Brunton (artist). For the fictional Sherlock Holmes character, see The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual.

Richard Henry Brunton
Born(1841-12-26)26 December 1841
Muchalls, Kincardineshire, Scotland
Died23 April 1901(1901-04-23) (aged 59)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Civil engineer, railway engineer, foreign advisor to Japan
Known forLighthouses

Richard Henry Brunton FRGS MICE (26 December 1841 – 24 April 1901) was the so-called "Father of Japanese lighthouses". Brunton was born in Muchalls, Kincardineshire, Scotland.[1] He was employed by the government of Meiji period Japan as a foreign advisor (o-yatoi gaikokujin), primarily to build lighthouses.

Over a period of seven and a half years he designed and supervised the building of 26 Japanese lighthouses in the Western style, which became known as Brunton's "children". To operate the lighthouses he established a system of lighthouse keepers, based on the one used in Scotland. He also helped found Japan's first school of civil engineering. In 1871, he was received by Emperor Meiji in recognition of his efforts.

  1. ^ Centenary memorial service for Richard Henry Brunton Archived 2007-09-14 at the Wayback Machine