   robert stevenson frse, fgs, fras, msa scot, mws, minstce (8 june 1772 â 12 july 1850) was a scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses. one of his finest achievements was the construction of the bell rock lighthouse. ==early life== stevenson was born in glasgow; his father was alan stevenson, a partner in a west india trading house in the city. he died of an epidemic fever on the island of st. christopher when stevenson was an infant; at much the same time, stevenson's uncle died of the same disease, leaving alan's widow, jane lillie, in straitened financial circumstances. as a result, stevenson was educated as an infant at a charity school. his mother intended robert for the ministry and to this end sent him to the school of a famous linguist of the day, mr. macintyre. however, in stevenson's fifteenth year, jane lillie married thomas smith a tinsmith, lamp maker and ingenious mechanic who had in 1786 been appointed engineer to the newly formed [[nor
1772_births 1850_deaths 19th-century_Scottish_people Alumni_of_the_University_of_Edinburgh Alumni_of_the_University_of_Strathclyde Burials_at_the_New_Calton_Cemetery Fellows_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh Lighthouse_builders People_from_Glasgow Scottish_civil_engineers