Kingsmill Eyre (23 May 1682–1743)[1] was Secretary of Chelsea Hospital, a garden designer, and the patentee of a process for making iron.
He had served eight years (including time in Holland) as an apprentice to a Mr Chitty, a merchant, supplying stores to the Navy Board.
This led to Eyre's appointment as Agent to the Four Companies of Invalids of Chelsea Hospital in 1716, a post in the gift of Walpole as its treasurer.
In this period, Eyre was responsible for laying out the garden at Walpole's Norfolk mansion at Houghton.
[4] During the 1720s, Eyre became involved in the iron-making project of William Wood, whose son had obtained a patent for a method of making iron in an air furnace using mineral coal in 1727.