Scottish industrialist Thomas Blake Glover died - On this day in Scottish history

Scottish industrialist Thomas Blake Glover died on 13 December 1911, at the age of 73. Glover was an Aberdeenshire businessman and inventor who brought the first steam train to Japan and created the Nagasaki shipyard, the forerunner of the Mitsubishi Corporation.

Glover worked with a trading company from leaving school and travelled widely, going to Japan as a green tea buyer in 1859. His early business dealings in Japan were criticised, as he sold arms ships and gunpowder illegally to the rebel clans. Despite going bankrupt in 1870, he re-established his fortunes by helping to develop the first dry dock and the first coal mine in Japan.

Glover was awarded the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun for his work in helping to industrialise Japan and is buried at the Sakamoto International Cemetery in Nagasaki, the town where he lived.

Thomas Blake Glover timeline

• 6 June 1838 -Thomas Blake Glover born in Fraserburgh
• 1859 - Began work for Jardine Matheson, selling green tea
• 1868 - Brought the Iron Duke into Japan - the country's first steam train
• 1869 - Launched some of Japan's first warships
• 1870 - Glover declared bankrupt
• 13 December 1911 - Death of Glover