Basic Biographical Details

Name:	Edwards Reid & Begg
Designation:
Born:	1936
Died:	1950s
Bio Notes:	Herbert Henry Reid was born on 9 August 1895 and was articled to John Alexander Ogg Allan, Architect to Aberdeen Education Authority, in August 1912. He studied at the Aberdeen School of Architecture, and remained with Allan as assistant until 1919 when he joined George Bennett Mitchell as chief assistant. He moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1921 as senior assistant to Cackett & Burns Dick, leaving after a year to become senior assistant to Bradshaw Gass & Hope in Bolton. In 1925 he emigrated to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where he worked for two years for the Public Works Department before commencing practice on his own account in the partnership of Edwards Reid & Booth. The firm was initially based in Colombo, but later opened a branch office in Madras, Southern India. In 1936 Kenneth Andrew Begg entered the Madras office as a partner, the firm becoming Edwards Reid & Begg. Begg had been born on 27 February 1903, the son of architect John Begg (born 1866 at Bo'ness), who was at the time working as consulting architect to the Government of Bombay and later practised in Edinburgh. The younger Begg attended classes at the School of Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, from October 1922 until 1928, and was a pupil of Dick Peddie & Walker Todd in 1924 and 1925. In June 1928 he was granted an exemption from the RIBA final exam, and in the same year won the Rowand Anderson Silver Medal and a £100 travelling studentship which allowed him to tour Scotland and France for three months. Prior to that time he had also visited Lincoln, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire. Begg was admitted ARIBA in early 1929, his proposers being his father, Frank Charles Mears and Charles Denny Carus-Wilson. At that time he was living with his father at 94 Inverleith Place and working in the Mears & Carus-Wilson office. Later that year he moved to London to work as assistant to Sir Edwin Lutyens, leaving him in 1931 to become chief assistant to William D'Arcy Cathcart in Salisbury, Rhodesia. After two years there he returned to London to work as chief assistant to Laurence Mursell Gotch, but in 1936 he left Britain again to commence practice as a principal in Madras in partnership with Edwards and Reid. Begg retired from the partnership in 1939 to join H M Forces, and on his demobilisation in 1945 became Chief Architect to the Government of Uganda. By the time of his election as FRIBA on 6 April 1948 - for which his proposers were his Allan, George Bennett Mitchell's son George Arthur Mitchell who was by then in charge of his late father's firm, and John Gibb Marr, also of Aberdeen - Reid was sole partner, his address being Prince Building, Prince Street, Colombo. His practice consisted principally of commercial and public buildings, including a number of hotels, as well as a theatre in Kandy, buildings for Madras University, Colombo Town Hall and 'numerous churches in Ceylon'.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	Madras, India	Business
	Colombo, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon, un	Business

Employment and Training

Employees or Pupils

The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	Kenneth Andrew Begg	1936	1939	Partner	In Madras office
	Herbert Henry Reid	1936	1939(?)	Partner

References

Currently, there are no references for this . The information has been derived from: the British Architectural Library / RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914; Post Office Directories; and/or any sources listed under this individual's works.