10 Facts About Thomas Drummond

Captain Thomas Drummond, from Edinburgh was a Scottish army officer, civil engineer and senior public official.

Thomas Drummond used the Drummond light which was employed in the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain and Ireland.

Thomas Drummond is sometimes mistakenly given credit for the invention of limelight, at the expense of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney.

Thomas Drummond was bored with this and had enrolled at Lincoln's Inn when he was recruited to use his trigonometry to help conduct a survey in the Highlands.

Thomas Drummond took this opportunity to improve his knowledge of mathematics and science.

In 1824 Thomas Drummond was transferred to the new Ordnance Survey of Ireland and here he used the new Thomas Drummond light.

Thomas Drummond reported that the light could be observed 68 miles away and would cast a strong shadow at a distance of thirteen miles.

Thomas Drummond left Ireland for a period prior to the Reform Bill of 1832.

Thomas Drummond was then appointed to the significant post of Irish under-secretary, heading up the administration in Dublin Castle, a position he held from 1835 until his death in 1840.

Thomas Drummond died in 1840 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.