Basic Biographical Details Name: | Norman Aitken Dick | Designation: | | Born: | 12 April 1883 | Died: | February 1948 | Bio Notes: | Norman Aitken Dick was born on 12 April 1883 at 45 Andrew Terrace, Newington, Edinburgh, the son of Robert Dick, wholesale druggist and his wife Margaret Broadfoot Aitken. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School from 1892 to 1897, and was articled to Peddie & Washington Browne from 1901 to 1905 and studied in Paris from the latter year, though not at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as he claimed to have done when he joined Burnet's office, a claim so engrained that it was repeated in his nomination paper as late as 1929. At the end of his studies he travelled throughout France and Brittany, working for Cheston & Perkin (mistyped Chester & Perkin in his FRIBA nomination papers) on his return from October to December 1907.
Big, red-haired, stand-offish and somewhat short of temper, Dick was an extremely fast draughtsman, and in December 1907 he was recruited by John James Burnet for his Glasgow office. At that time Burnet was spending only a few days a month in his Glasgow office due to his commitments in London on the British Museum and the General Accident building. Dick had money at a time the practice needed it, and in 1909 he bought a ten-year partnership which was confined to the Glasgow practice of John Burnet & Sons, a development which was a matter of some disappointment to William John Blain and James Wilkie Weddell, who had been given the main responsibility for the work of that office in Burnet's absence but were not offered a partnership.
At that date Burnet still did all the designing and Dick's role was essentially that of office manager and chief draughtsman for the major projects the Glasgow office now had in hand: the Alhambra Theatre, an austere twin-towered design of red brick banded with black and panels of white-glazed tile towards the top, built in 1910-11; the Sick Children's Hospital at Yorkhill, again red brick with a very American glazed porte-cochere; and in 1913-22 the Albert Kahn-like Wallace Scott Tailoring Institute at Cathcart, an American garden factory with broad-bayed pilastrades stretched between corner pylons, a brick version of the British Museum colonnades with the spandrels of the windows patterned in the French manner. All three of these buildings were basically American in inspiration, directly related to Burnet's second study visit to the United States in 1908 which was concerned with warehouse and hospital design and a third late in 1910 which was primarily concerned with museum and gallery design. Also in America at that time was William Forsyth, the son of Burnet's most important private client, Robert Wallace Forsyth, who had returned full of ideas on the organisation of industry for the Wallace Scott Tailoring Institute. But their inspiration may not have been wholly American: also of significance was a visit by Burnet to Germany and Austria later in 1911, in the course of which he saw the work of Otto Wagner and his circle and just possibly that of Peter Behrens.
Dick enlisted shortly after the outbreak of the First World War and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Scots. After the war Burnet's London office recovered rather more quickly than the Glasgow one. Burnet consequently needed to rebuild his office staff there. He persuaded Thomas Smith Tait to return and took both Tait and his former office manager David Raeside into partnership, the London practice now becoming Sir John Burnet & Partners although still not completely separate from the Glasgow one. In Glasgow the situation was more complicated. There were several major commissions due to go ahead: the implementation of the 1913-14 scheme for Glasgow University Chapel as a war memorial, the enlargement of the Wallace Scott factory and additions to the Sick Children's Hospital. Although Burnet was initially glad to get Dick back, having had difficulty in securing his release, the previously good relationship between them did not last. Burnet's niece Edith had hoped for a place in the London office, and her husband Thomas Harold Hughes whom she had married in 1918 had hoped for a partnership there; but Tait demurred at Hughes joining the London office and there was no separate female lavatory at Montague Place. Hughes was given a partnership in Glasgow but Dick disliked him as much as Tait had done, openly referring to his refined wash drawings and their brown ink script as the 'pansy productions of that wishy-washy College of Art b****r'. As a result Hughes worked entirely alone in a small first-floor room with the door closed, almost exclusively on war memorials. The catalyst for the end of this unhappy state of affairs was the firm's trusted chief clerk, Duncan, who withdrew the moneys held on behalf of contractors and disappeared. Burnet and Dick had to make good the loss, the latter by repurchasing his partnership, and for the good name of the firm Duncan was not reported to the police. The Glasgow practice then became Burnet Son & Dick. Hughes withdrew to teach at the Glasgow School of Art, succeeding Fulton as head of school in 1922. After the departure of Hughes, James Wallace, a big man who had been a pupil of Neil Campbell Duff and an assistant with Thomson & Sandilands, joined the office. The Glasgow Cenotaph and the fine Zoology building and chapel at the University were all successfully completed: these were designed by Burnet himself with the aid of the accomplished draughtsmen Walter J Knight and James Napier, but the enlargement of Forsyth's in Edinburgh and the extension of the Sick Children's Hospital were largely the work of Dick and Wallace on their own. Apart from the University Chapel, the most important Glasgow commission was the North British and Mercantile Building on St Vincent Street of 1924-26, which Burnet had planned to be his final masterpiece. It was a brilliant design, in some degree influenced by the classical work of Charles Holden at its arcaded ground floor, but the building of it was beset with problems. Burnet was over-committed in London, his health was failing and he was not in the Glasgow office often enough; Dick did not take enough interest in it; Knight, the draughtsman initially engaged on it, incorrectly interpreted Burnet's jointing of the plinth as channelling and Burnet insisted on the granite work being recut; and because of an error in the design of the steelwork in relation to the staircase window, the steel frame had to be partly dismantled and modified. To correct these defects the Glasgow partnership had to pay the contractors something like £10,000. Dick had already been at loggerheads with Burnet on a number of other issues and this final disaster brought about the effective dissolution of the Glasgow partnership in the late 1920s.
Dick was admitted FRIBA in 1929. He was not nominated by Burnet but by the RIBA Council, perhaps on an allied society basis as President of the Glasgow Institute and a Governor of Glasgow School of Art. He practised successfully enough in the early to mid-1930s, notably at the Tennent Institute for Glasgow University and at the Nurses' Home at Gartnavel; during those years he lived in considerable style at Boghall, Baldernock. But with Burnet's retirement the old agreement that the London practice would not compete with the Glasgow one ended. With his Paisley connections Tait began to receive commissions Dick might have expected and Dick was not among those invited to participate in the Glasgow Empire Exhibition in 1938. The loss of Glasgow University's business to Hughes was particularly hard to take and aggravated a tendency to drink too much. He closed the Glasgow office in 1940 and put the firm's archive into store with Morrison McChlery; when he failed to pay their charges despite reminders, that firm sent the entire collection for salvage. By that time Dick was living in London: it is not yet known what he did there, but he was expelled from the RIBA in 1942 and on one occasion John Watson found him slumped on a stair in the London Underground. He died in London in February 1948. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 239, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1907 | 1932 or 1933 | With the exception of war service, 1914-19 | | Boghall, Baldernock (nr Milngavie), Stirlingshire, Scotland | Private | 1929 * | | | | 15, Blythswood Square, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1939 | After 1940 | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployers
RIBARIBA Proposals
Buildings and DesignsThis 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 | | 1907 | Scottish National Exhibition, 1908 | Saughton | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Competition design - unsuccessful | | 1909 | Alhambra Theatre | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1909 | Black's warehouse | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Alterations | | 1909 | Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics | | | Glasgow | Scotland | New south west wing and alterations to west house | | 1909 | Usher Hall | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Competition design for the Mound site - not successful (exhibited at RSA as 'sketch suggestion for site') | | 1910 | Elder Cottage Hospital, nurses' home | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1910 | Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Laundry extension | | 1910 | Marine Hotel | Elie | | Fife | Scotland | Additions | | 1910 | Tennant Mansion, 195 West George Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Reconstruction and enlargement of Tennant mansion as offices for Nobel Explosives Company | | 1910 | Trochraigue House | Girvan | | Ayrshire | Scotland | Addition of tower and other work. he is credited with the design of the tower in 'Buildings of Scotland'. | | 1910 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Clinical laboratory. Also work on this 1914 | | 1911 | Duart Castle | Craignure (near) | Mull | Argyll | Scotland | Executed scheme which had been prepared in consultation with Ross & MacGibbon | | 1911 | Royal Hospital for Sick Children | Yorkhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1911 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | New dietetic kitchen | | 1912 | Cumberland Infirmary | Carlisle | | Cumberland | England | | | 1912 | Kidston Hall | Kilmacolm/Kilmalcolm | | Renfrewshire | Scotland | | | 1912 | Kilmarnock Infirmary and Fever Hospital, Mount Pleasant | Kilmarnock | | Ayrshire | Scotland | New ward added | | 1912 | Union Bank | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Remodelled | | 1913 | Jordanhill Teacher Training College | Jordanhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | Competition design - not successful | | 1913 | Jordanhill Training College, lodge and gates | Jordanhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | Was offered the commission (as partner with Burnet) for lodge and gates bu declined | | 1913 | Wallace Scott Tailoring Institute | Cathcart | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1914 | Clyde Navigation Trust Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Third phase on Broomielaw proposed; not carried out due to outbreak of World War I | | 1914 | Letham Hill | Helensburgh | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | | | 1915 | Kilmarnock Infirmary and Fever Hospital, Mount Pleasant | Kilmarnock | | Ayrshire | Scotland | New ward block | | 1919 | New Alhambra Theatre | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Designs drawn up | | 1920 | Alhambra Theatre | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Further work | | 1920 | Arbroath Parish Church | Arbroath | | Angus | Scotland | War memorial | | 1920 | Dumbarton War Memorial | Dumbarton | | Dunbartonshire | Scotland | | | 1920 | Trochraigue House | Girvan | | Ayrshire | Scotland | Interior work | | 1920 | University of Glasgow, Engineering Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions | | 1920 | Wallace Scott Tailoring Institute | Cathcart | | Glasgow | Scotland | Formal garden, pergola and retaining walls executed | | 1920 | Wellington UF Church, War Memorial | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1920 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Massage building, x-ray department | | 1921 | Broomhill Congregational Church and halls | Partick | | Glasgow | Scotland | War memorial | | 1921 | Clyde Navigation Trust, War Memorial | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1921 | Clydesdale Bank Headquarters, St Vincent Place | | | Glasgow | Scotland | War memorial | | 1921 | Glasgow Cenotaph | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Invited to submit design in limited competition - design selected | | 1921 | Kilmarnock Infirmary and Fever Hospital, Mount Pleasant | Kilmarnock | | Ayrshire | Scotland | Alterations to administration block and No 1 block | | 1921 | New Cumnock War Memorial | New Cumnock | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1921 | Stenhouse Parish Church War Memorial | Stenhouse | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1922 | Ballater War Memorial | Ballater | | Aberdeenshire | Scotland | | | 1922 | Elder Cottage Hospital, nurses' home | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1922 | Grangemouth War Memorial, Zetland Park | Grangemouth | | Stirlingshire | Scotland | | | 1922 | Merchiston Castle School, War Memorial | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | | | 1922 | Royal Hospital for Sick Children | Yorkhill | | Glasgow | Scotland | Additions to nurses' home; administration building largely designed in Glasgow office | | 1922 | Skelmorlie and Wemyss Bay War Memorial | Skelmorlie | | Ayrshire | Scotland | | | 1922 | St Philip's Episcopal Church | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Porch and vestry | | 1922 | University of Glasgow, Zoology Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1922 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Nurses' home extension and nurses' lecture theatre | | c. 1922 | Faculty of Accountants War Memorial | | | | Scotland | | | 1923 | R W Forsyth Ltd Department Store | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | West extension over site of George Washington Browne's Redfern building (see separate entry) and new building at 3 St Andrew Square with bridge over mews lane | | 1923 | University of Glasgow, War Memorial Chapel and Arts Building | Gilmorehill | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1924 | University of Glasgow, William and George Hunter Memorial | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1925 | North British and Mercantile Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1925 | Savings Bank of Glasgow | Bridgeton Cross | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | c. 1925 | John Ross Memorial Church | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1926 | Dunoon District Cottage Hospital | Dunoon | | Argyll | Scotland | Built replacement | | 1926 | Merchiston Castle School, War Memorial Hall | | | Edinburgh | Scotland | Working in assication with Dick Peddie & Walker Todd | | 1926 | Western Infirmary, Alexander Elder Memorial Chapel | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1927 | Alhambra Theatre | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Western addition | | 1928 | Cumberland Infirmary | Carlisle | | Cumberland | England | Additions/reconstruction | | 1928 | Royal Northern Infirmary | Inverness | | Inverness-shire | Scotland | Alterations to original 1799-1804 main building and new ward blocks | | 1929 | Glen Tower | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Remodelled villa to form homeopathic hospital | | 1929 | St Gerardine's Church and hall | Lossiemouth | | Morayshire | Scotland | Church hall | | Before 1929 | Clyde Navigation Trust War Memorial | | | | Scotland | | | Before 1929 | Clydesdale Bank War Memorial | | | | Scotland | | | Before 1929 | McDonalds Ltd warehouse | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Reconstruction | | Before 1929 | North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary | | | Staffordshire | England | Reconstruction | | 1930 | Our Lady and St Columba RC Church | Kingussie | | Inverness-shire | Scotland | | | 1931 | Crosshill School | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1931 | Old Greyfriars Church | Govan | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1931 | Skinner's Bakery and tea room | Charing Cross | | Glasgow | Scotland | Rebuilding (?) of nos 1-7 Newton Street | | 1931 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Kelvin block, alterations and additions | | 1932 | Black's warehouse | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Reconstruction | | 1932 | Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Alterations | | 1932 | Western Infirmary, Nurses' Home | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1933 | Tennent Memorial Institute of Ophthalmology | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1934 | Glasgow Royal Mental Hospital, nurses' home | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1935 | 152 Renfield Street | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Reconstruction | | 1935 | Glasgow Western Infirmary, Pathology Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Margaret Macgregor extension | | 1935 | Holyrood RC School | Polmadie | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1935 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Boiler house, septic block and ENT department | | 1937 | Daily Record Building | | | Glasgow | Scotland | Conversion to clothing warehouse | | 1937 | University of Glasgow/Western Infirmary, Gardiner Medical Institute | | | Glasgow | Scotland | | | 1937 | Western Infirmary | | | Glasgow | Scotland | New radiology department |
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | RIBA | 1939 | The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this : | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Scotsman | 7 February 1948 | | | Obituary p3 |
Archive ReferencesThe 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 | | | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | F no2686 (box 10) |
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