Michael Richards (engineer)

Michael Richards (1673-1721) was an Irish military engineer who rose to become Chief Engineer of Great Britain and Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.

He was the son of Jacob Richards, also a leading military engineer, and the grandson of Solomon Richards. The family were Irish Protestants who owned land in County Wexford.

He was commissioned in 1692 (although he may have seen earlier service in the Williamite War in Ireland) and served in Flanders in the Nine Years War. He accompanied an expedition to Newfoundland in 1697. He played a role in rebuilding the town of St. John's which had been destroyed in a French attack.

In 1711 he was appointed as Chief Engineer, a position that had gone unfilled since the death of Sir Martin Beckman in 1702. He retired from the Army with the rank of Brigadier General.