Larger versions of these images are located at the foot of the page. Basic Biographical Details Name: | William Sinclair Gauldie | Designation: | Architect | Born: | 29 December 1918 | Died: | 1 July 1996 | Bio Notes: | William Sinclair Gauldie (known as Sinclair Gauldie) was born on 29 December 1918, the son of Dundee architect William Gauldie and his wife Charlotte Sandeman Sinclair who had married in 1911. He was educated at Invergowrie School and Dundee High School where he was an Armistead medal-list in English and French. He was articled to Frank Thomson and studied at Dundee College of Art part-time from 1936 to 1940, winning a prize in first year. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War when he served between October 1939 and June (or January?) 1940 with the Royal Corps of Signals. He returned to full-time study in 1940, completing the course in 1942. He was elected ARIBA on 13 April 1943, proposed by Patrick Hill Thoms, William Salmond and Charles Geddes Soutar. Around this time he won a prize for his dissertation on architecture and stagecraft and this led to a commission to illustrate a number of books and to work in the theatre. He won a prize for a radio play and an adaptation of Wilkie Collins’s ‘The Moonstone’ which was performed in London’s West End. From 1943 to 1945 he was a tutor at the College, lecturing on the History of Architecture and on Structural Steelwork. He inherited his father’s practice upon the latter’s death on 4 October 1945.
From 1945 to 1963 he was a visiting lecturer at the Duncan of Jordanstone College and was an honorary lecturer at St Andrews and Dundee Universities. He was elected FRIBA in 1954, his proposers being John Needham, Thomas Hill Thoms and another (unreadable signature), and FRIAS in 1956. During the 1950s he was much influenced by Danish architecture and made several trips to Denmark.
In 1947 he took into partnership an old friend, Arthur Francis Stevenson Wright (also born 1918) who had trained with Thoms & Wilkie. Later the pair were renowned for their verbal jousts. In 1950 they took into partnership John Needham (born 1909), Head of the School of Architecture at Dundee College of Art, the firm then becoming Gauldie Hardie Wright & Needham, until Needham left for Sheffield in 1975.
Gauldie was active in matters relating to the profession and was President of the Dundee Institute of Architects from 1961-63 and of the RIAS from 1963-65. He also served on the National Building Agency and the Scottish Building Contract Committee. He sat on the Broadcasting Council for Scotland and the General Advisory Council of the BBC.
In 1970 Gauldie was made CBE for his services to architecture and building. However he withdrew from active public service after a heart attack about 1970. He retired in 1986.
Outwith his profession Gauldie was a fine painter and exhibited both paintings and architectural designs at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Dundee Art Society. He was a founding member of the Scottish Society of Architect-Artists. He also published various books, contributed to numerous professional journals, wrote the script for BBC programmes and made radio and television appearances.
Sinclair Gauldie married Enid Elizabeth Macneilage in 1949. She was a historian and writer. They had one son and two daughters. He was transferred to the category of retired FRIAS in 1993. He died suddenly in Ninewells Hospital on 1 July 1996, survived by his wife and children.
Publications: ‘Looking at Scottish Buildings’, 1947 (with George Scott-Moncrieff) ‘The Moonstone’ play (with Harold Scott) ‘Fortesquieu: a memoir’ (with Harold Scott) ‘Architects and Architecture on Tayside’, 1984 (with D Bruce Walker) ‘Take a Letter: The Useful Architect’s Companion’, 1987
| Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this architect: | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | Dundee, Scotland | Business | | | |  | The Ha'en, Invergowrie, Perthshire, Scotland | Private | 1943 | | |  | Waterside, Invergowrie, Angus/Perthsire, Scotland | Private | Before 1954 | 1996 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployers
RIBARIBA Proposals
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this architect: | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes |  | Bailey, Rebecca M | 1996 | Scottish architects' papers: a source book | | Edinburgh: The Rutland Press | Personal information from Sinclair Gauldie |  | Glendinning, Miles | 1997 | Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75 | | Tuckwell Press Ltd | p18 Belmont Hall of Residence |  | RIBA | 1950 | The RIBA Kalendar 1950-1951 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | |
Periodical ReferencesThe following periodicals contain references to this architect: | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes |  | Builder | 18 August 1961 | | | 'Civic Trust Design Awards, 1960 - Results of Competitions in the County Boroughs, The Awards, Scotland' pp304-305 - served as assessor for Airdrie projects |  | RIAS Newsletter | November 1996 | v7, no9 | | Death notice |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this architect: | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes |  | Professor David M Walker personal archive | Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material | | Information from manuscript notes by William S Gauldie, made c.1954, and other recollections communicated verbally. Undated newscutting reports exhibition of the work of Gauldrie as an artist mounted at the Rep, Dundee, probably 1984. |  | RIAS, Rutland Square | Records of membership | | |
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