Basic Biographical Details | Name: | (Colonel) George Hunter Gardner-McLean | | Designation: | Architect | | Born: | 18 November 1885 | | Died: | 24 December 1961 | | Bio Notes: | George Hunter Gardner-McLean was born in Glasgow on 18 November 1885, the son of John Gardner McLean, solicitor and Lorenza Hamlin Hunter (subsequently Henry). He was educated in Londonderry and at Hutcheson's School for Boys in Glasgow, and began his architectural training in 1900, serving a five-year apprenticeship with an unspecified firm and studying at the Glasgow School of Art and Royal Technical College. After completing his apprenticeship he worked in the office of John James Burnet for two years, and from 1912 to 1915 was an assistant in the Public Works Department, Glasgow. From 1915 to 1918 he served in the First World War as a Captain with the Royal Engineers and was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. After the war he served in the Territorial Army and was promoted Major in 1921. Thereafter he commanded the 52nd (Lowland) Divisional Engineers, Royal Engineers Territorial Army with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel (1931), Brevet Colonel (1935) and Colonel (1936).
Not long after the end of the First World War he joined in partnership with Hugh Campbell at 156 St Vincent Street as Campbell & Gardner-McLean. This partnership appears to have ended in 1925 when Gardner-McLean seems to have entered into partnership with Alexander Gardner, who may have been a relative, at 134 Bath Street. On the latter's death on 2 February 1926 he became the sole partner of the firm, the Gardner name being retained.
Gardner-McLean had a particular interest in church buildings and for a number of years he served on the Church of Scotland Committee on artistic matters and on the Council of the Glasgow Ecclesiological Society. He was admitted LRIBA in early 1931, his proposers being John Maurice Arthur, George Arthur Boswell and the then secretary of the Glasgow Institute of Architects. Throughout the 1930s he had an impressive record of public service. He was appointed to the Council of the RIAS in 1931 and to the Executive Committee of the Scottish Development Council in 1934; became chairman of the Building Materials Committee in 1936; and was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Scottish Empire Exhibition in the same year. The earlier of these led to his appointment as OBE in 1935 and admission as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was elected FRIBA on 9 January 1939, proposed by William Brown Whitie, John Stewart and James Lochhead. For some years he was a member of the Council of the Glasgow Institute of Architects and became its President in 1938-40. He was also chairman of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association in Scotland from 1937 and for several years from 1938 acted as Chairman of the Scottish Building Centre in Glasgow, of which he was a director.
Gardner-McLean's other interests were the Clan McLean Association of which he was Vice-President, riding, climbing and golf. He married Mary Hutchison Pate (or Lambie - she was a widow), daughter of Robert Hutchison Pate, shipping company cashier, at Queens Park St George's Church on 14 January 1935 at the age of fifty and had a son and a daughter. In that year he was awarded the OBE. During the Second World War he was Deputy Chief Engineer Scottish Command with the rank of Colonel and became Chief of the Directorate of Emergency Works in Scotland. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Lanarkshire in 1950. He died of cancer and cerebral thrombosis at Canniesburn on 24 December 1961. A portrait of him taken shortly before his death by the photographer Bassano is in the National Portrait Gallery. | Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this architect: | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | 156, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | Before 1919 | 1924 or 1925 | | | 212, St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1924 or 1925 * | | | | 134, Bath Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1929 | 1933 | With Alexander Gardner | | 8, Ruthven Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | Before 1930 | Before 1939 | | | 6, India Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | c. 1934 | After 1950 | | | 19, Tavistock Drive, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | Before 1935 | 1961 | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployersEmployees or Pupils
RIBARIBA ProposersRIBA Proposals
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this architect: | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | RIBA | 1930 | The RIBA Kalendar 1930-1931 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | | | RIBA | 1939 | The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | | | RIBA | 1950 | The RIBA Kalendar 1950-1951 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | | | Scottish Biographies | 1938 | | | E J Thurston (pub.) | |
Periodical References| The following periodicals contain references to this architect: | | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Builder | 5 January 1962 | | | |
Archive References| The following archives hold material relating to this architect: | | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | L no3837 (box 17); F no3517 (box 24) |
Images © All rights reserved. The Bailie 1935 (RIBA Conference in Glasgow Edition) (courtesy of Iain Paterson) |