Henry Dyer

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For other people named Henry Dyer, see Henry Dyer (disambiguation).

Henry Dyer
Henry Dyer
Born	(1848-08-16)August 16, 1848 Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died	September 25, 1918(1918-09-25) (aged 70) Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	engineer, educator

Henry Dyer (August 16, 1848 – September 25, 1918) was a Scottish engineer who contributed much to founding Western-style technical education in Japan and Anglo-Japanese relations.

Early life

Henry Dyer was born on 16 August 1848, in the village of Muirmadkin (now absorbed into the town of Bellshill) in the Parish of Bothwell in what is now known as North Lanarkshire.

Around 1865, the Dyer family moved to Glasgow where Henry was employed at James Aitken and Company's foundry in Cranstonhill. There he served his apprenticeship as a student engineer under Thomas Kennedy and A C Kirk. At the same time, he attended classes at Anderson's College (later to become the University of Strathclyde) together with Yamao Yōzō.

Dyer studied at Glasgow University from 1868. He was the first Scot to win the Whitworth scholarship awarded in 1868, which was for the further instruction of young men gifted in the practice and theory of mechanics. Henry Dyer graduated from Glasgow University in 1873 with a "certificate in proficiency in engineering", the forerunner of the BSc in Engineering, from the Engineering department.

Japan (1873-1882)

Dyer was recommended to Itō Hirobumi during the Iwakura Mission's visit to the United Kingdom for the post of Principal and Professor of Engineering at the new Imperial College of Engineering (ICE or Kobu Daigakko) in Tokyo by his professor, William John Macquorn Rankine and appointed in 1872 when just 25 years old.

The Government of Japan at the time was actively seeking to transfer skills and knowledge from the United Kingdom and other countries in order to catch up with them. The courses Dyer implemented at the ICE required the student to spend two years on general and science subjects, two on technical subjects in the student’s chosen field, and two more on purely practical work.

To provide practical training, Dyer helped set up the Akabane Engineering Works, the largest in the Empire of Japan. Many of the major engineering works carried out in Japan at the end of the 19th century were by his former students, and Dyer also sent many to Glasgow to complete their education.

When he left the ICE in 1882, Dyer was made Honorary Principal and Emperor Meiji awarded him the Third Class of the Order of the Rising Sun, the highest Japanese honour available to foreigners. He had established a progressive system of engineering education in Tokyo and greatly contributed to the progress Japan made as an industrial power.

Scotland (1882-1918)

Henry Dyer went back to Scotland and in 1886 became a life governor of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (previously Anderson's College, where he had been a student, and later to become the University of Strathclyde, and governor of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Agricultural College. He became a member of the Glasgow School Board in 1891 and was its president from 1914 until his death.

Dyer represented a tireless pro-Japanese lobby within Scotland. He assisted Japanese students, engineers and trainee managers and had a staunch ally in Captain A R Brown of the company Brown, McFarlane who had been responsible for taking the first Clyde-built ships to Japan. Dyer worked as an unofficial liaison officer for the Japanese Government in Glasgow and thanks to his efforts Glasgow University Court permitted Japanese as a language for entry in 1901. In the same year Professors Jōji Sakurai and Isao Iijima of the Tokyo Imperial University were awarded honorary degrees during the University’s Ninth Jubilee celebrations.

The University of Strathclyde's Henry Dyer Building, home to the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, was named after him.

Publications

The Evolution of Industry (1895)
Dai Nippon: The Britain of the East (1904)
Japan in World Politics (1909)
Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, in 5 vols., edited by Nobuhiro Miyoshi, Tokyo: Edition Synapse. ISBN 978-4-901481-83-0

References

Olive Checkland, 'Henry Dyer at the Imperial College of Engineering Tokyo, and afterwards in Glasgow', Chapter 11, Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume 3, Japan Library, ISBN 1-873410-89-1
Collected Writings of Henry Dyer, ISBN 1-901903-71-0
Henry Dyer: Pioneer of Education in Japan, by Nobuhiro Miyoshi, 2004, ISBN 1-901903-66-4

External sources

Henry Dyer, 1848-1918 - a detailed and informative site
Japan and People
Japan and Shipbuilding
Glasgow University and Japan
- Henry Dyer Building, University of Strathclyde

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 40161806 LCCN: n86037229 ISNI: 0000 0000 8375 1803 GND: 117664189 BNF: cb15029574c NDL: 00620610

Persondata
Name	Dyer, Henry
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1848-08-16
Place of birth	Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Date of death	1918-09-25
Place of death	Glasgow, Scotland

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