Brysson Cunningham

Dr Brysson Cunningham FRSE DSc MICE (1868-1950)^[1] was a Scottish civil engineer and author specialising in harbour and dock design and operation. In the early 20th century he was generally viewed as the authority in this field.^[2]

Life

Brysson was probably the son of David Cunningham FRSE (1838-1896) a civil engineer specialising firstly in railways and from the mid 1860s in harbour and dock design, working under Benjamin Blyth. Given David Cunningham's overseeing of the Dundee Harbour project in the late 1860s and his lifelong connections with that city it may be presumed that Brysson was also born in Dundee.^[3]

Little else is known of his life other than that he acted as a Lecturer in Waterways, Harbours and Docks at University College, London in the early 20th century.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1917, his proposers being William Dyce Cay, Ernest Romney Matthews, Benjamin Hall Blyth, and Sir Frank Watson Dyson.^[4]

Publications

• Mineral Shipments at British Ports (1904)^[5]
• First Stage Building Construction (1904)
• A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Dock Engineering (1904)
• The Dock and Harbour Engineer’s Reference Book (1914)
• Port Administration and Operation (1925)
• Cargo Handling at Ports (1926)
• Port Economics (1926)
• Port Studies (1928)
• Estuary Channels and Embankments (1938)

References