Basic Biographical Details

Name:	William Gillespie Lamond
Designation:
Born:	4 December 1854
Died:	23 June 1912
Bio Notes:	William Gillespie Lamond was born on 4 December 1854 at West Calder where his father was factor, described by the Registrar as 'Steward'. His mother was Christina Gillespie. His father having obtained another post, he completed his school education in Dumfries and it was in that town that he was apprenticed, though to which office is not yet known. Subsequently he went to Northampton to widen his experience, but again the office is not known. In 1883 he designed a byre at Westfield of Newholm, Lanarkshire, a commission probably related to his father's employment at that date. At about that year he settled in Arbroath as architect and civil engineer with a house at Frockheim. In 1884 he was commissioned to design the water tower at Arbroath. The first designs were in a 'Moorish or Spanish style of architecture' but in deference to local opinion they were changed to 'Scotch Baronial or Castellated'. Once the design had been provided the Burgh Surveyor claimed the right to supervise its building, Lamond refused to hand over the drawings, and the Burgh went to court for them. After attempting to continue his practice in the Arbroath area, Lamond was eventually compelled to give up and c.1896 applied for employment to Charles and Leslie Ower in Dundee, apparently as a result of financial problems arising from the building of Friockheim Turning Works with which his daughter thought he was personally involved. At the Owers, Lamond was remembered for his extraordinary ability and resourcefulness, which made him something of a hero figure among the younger assistants and the apprentices. The Owers allowed him to design the Pearl Building, and when multiple copies were required he etched his drawings rather than send them to a printer. Although there were tales of Lamond ushering Charles Ower out of the drawing office with a red-hot poker when he did not want to be disturbed, there was briefly at least, a period of real rapport between Charles Ower and Lamond as the latter named his son after him. Unfortunately the partnership of Charles and Leslie Ower broke up in 1898; Lamond remained with Charles, but neither brother ever did so much business again, and Lamond decided to leave for the office of Thomas Martin Cappon, where much of the design work had been delegated to a brilliant apprentice, Harry East. East had largely designed St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church as a third-year apprentice in 1896 and 1897, but left in 1898 while it was still building. Lamond revised the design of the confessionals, substituting for East's gables a curved parapet that seems to have been taken from Hall Cooper & Davis's designs for Chesterfield School and Baths. Drawing other motifs from the work of Charles Harrison Townsend, particularly rounded angles, convex moulding, cantilevered semi-circular canopies and domical cappings, Lamond evolved a very personal style which made its first appearance at the twin campanili of St Mary's Forebank and in varying degrees quickly spread into the work of Lamond's circle from the C & L Ower office, particularly Patrick Hill Thoms, Charles Geddes Soutar and William Gauldie. By early 1904 Cappon's office was less busy than it had been. Lamond moved to the office of James Hendry Langlands Senior, then about to embark on a major programme of school building as a result of the Education Act of 1901, which raised the school leaving age. His style developed rapidly in Langland's office, and Jugendstil lettering featured prominently in the earlier schools. Unfortunately the architectural features of his best school, Stobswell, provoked complaints from the rate payers and although the Board defended its architect, the generous eaves and detailing of the Stobswell School were pared back thereafter. Lamond remained with Langlands until his sudden death at Stirling Cottage, Friockheim, on Sunday, 23 June 1912. During his time at Langland's office Lamond assisted other architects with whom he was friendly. Miss Jessie Lamond also remembered a lot of design work being done for an architect outwith Dundee, she thought 'down south' but this has never been traced. Although she remembered him working almost every evening and weekend throughout her childhood, his moveable estate when he died was only £50. Although James Hendry Langlands Junior - who remembered him with great affection - described him as always smartly dressed, he was not conventional enough to fit easily into the Edwardian business world: he abhorred ties as non-functional, preferring simply a prominent gold collar stud: and after ash from his pipe burned a hole in a very large waxed linen drawing he chewed tobacco instead. Lamond was a superb draughtsman and a good watercolourist with a preference for pale washes. The Langlands office was hung with large framed watercolour presentation drawings, some of which were retained by Langlands when the office closed, but most were deposited with the buildings depicted. Characteristic of these was the use of figures drawn to a smaller scale than the buildings: of that for the Leng Memorial Chapel (not seen and perhaps no longer extant) Frank Thomson observed that he had made quite a small building seem like the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. Lamond's son Charles Ower Lamond also became an architect but emigrated to the USA. He was chief architect of the Federal Housing Association in Iowa from 1938 to 1968. He also held supervisory positions with the Iowa Emergency Relief Administration and Works Progress Administration in Clinton Dubuque and Davenport.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	Stirling Cottage, Friockheim, Angus, Scotland	Private		1912
	Arbroath, Angus, Scotland	Business	c. 1883
	Friockheim, Angus, Scotland	Private	c. 1883

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	C & L Ower	c. 1896	1898	Chief Assistant
	Charles Ower (junior)	1898	c. 1898	Chief Draughtsman
	Thomas Martin Cappon	c. 1898	1904	Senior Assistant
	James Hendry Langlands (senior)	1904	1912	Assistant

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
	Date started	Building name	Town, district or village	Island	City or county	Country	Notes
		St Vigeans Parish Church	Arbroath		Angus	Scotland	Unspecified work - date unknown
	1883	Westfield of Newholm, byre	Westfield of Newholm		Lanarkshire	Scotland	Mixed byre
	1884	Water Tower	Arbroath		Angus	Scotland	Design only; executed by burgh surveyor
	c. 1890	St Vigeans Schoolhouse	Arbroath		Angus	Scotland
	1893	Fairweather's Turning Works	Friockheim		Angus	Scotland
	1896	Craigmount House	Kirkton of Strathmartine		Angus	Scotland	As draughtsman to C & L Ower
	1896	Pearl Assurance Building			Dundee	Scotland	Mainly responsible for design
	1897	British Linen Bank			Dundee	Scotland	Mainly responsibly for design
	c. 1898	Leng Memorial Chapel, lodge and gateway, Vicarsford Cemetery	Forgan		Fife	Scotland	Perhaps perspective only - as senior assistant to T M Cappon
	1899	Episcopal Church hall (St Margaret of Scotland)	Tayport		Fife	Scotland	May have been by Lamond while with Cappon - on stylistioc grounds
	1899	Forfar Fever Hospital	Whitehills, Forfar		Angus	Scotland	As assistant to T M Cappon on third premiated competition design, which was nevertheless awarded job
	1899	St Mary's RC Church			Dundee	Scotland	Major rebuilding of earlier church - mainly new façade - as draughtsman to T M Cappon
	1899	Wishart Memorial Church			Dundee	Scotland	As assistant to Cappon
	1900	Airlie Memorial Tower, Glenprosen	Tullahill, Cortachy		Angus	Scotland	Won in competition - as senior assistant to T M Cappon
	1901	Freemasons Hall	Friockheim		Angus	Scotland	Converted from former church
	c. 1901	St Joseph's RC School for Boys			Dundee	Scotland	New gateway and other alterations
	1904	St Joseph's RC Church	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	After 1904	Fairmuir Special School	Fairmuir		Dundee	Scotland	Competition drawing
	1905	13 Lammerton Terrace			Dundee	Scotland
	1905	Ancrum Road School			Dundee	Scotland	Reconstruction - as assistant to Langlands
	1905	Semi-detached bungalow, Forfar Road			Dundee	Scotland	As assistant to Langlands
	1905	St Joseph's RC Schools			Dundee	Scotland	Original building
	1907	Dens Road School			Dundee	Scotland	As assistant to Langlands
	1907	Dundee Technical Institute			Dundee	Scotland	Won in competition
	1907	Stobswell Public School			Dundee	Scotland	As draughtsman to Langlands
	1909	Druimbeg mansion house and motor house			Dundee	Scotland	Perhaps as spare-time assistant to Edward Tough
	1911	Eastern School	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland	As draughtsman
	1911	Glebelands School			Dundee	Scotland	Rebuilding
	c. 1911	Harris Academy, Park Place			Dundee	Scotland	Reconstruction of Ireland & MacLaren building with additional floor.

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
	Author(s)	Date	Title	Part	Publisher	Notes
	RCAHMS	1992	Dundee on Record		RCAHMS	St Mary's RC Church; Image of the east gable p46

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
	Periodical Name	Date	Edition	Publisher	Notes
	Architectural Review	April 1958			pp269-271
	Dundee Courier and Advertiser	24 April 1968			Re: Charles Ower Lamond

Archive References

The following archives hold material relating to this :
	Source	Archive Name	Source Catalogue No.	Notes
	Professor David M Walker personal archive	Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material		Personal information from James H Langlands Junior, Jessie Lamomd, Frank Thomson, W Sinclair Gauldie (derived from his father)