Basic Biographical Details

Name:	David Raeside
Designation:	Architect
Born:
Died:	1928
Bio Notes:	David Raeside belonged to a Prestwick family but little else is known of his background and training as he never joined the RIBA and may not have been an architect in the normal sense of the word. Whether he commenced his career in the Glasgow office is not yet known, but he joined the London office of Sir John James Burnet as office manager before the First World War. Raeside undertook war service in the Middle East and was commissioned as a Lieutenant. Before his release he accepted the commission for the War Memorial on the Suez Canal at Port Tewfik. This brought a complaint from Lorimer as being within the territories allocated to him by the War Graves Commission and caused Burnet some embarrassment. But on his release Raeside returned to Burnet's office and was taken into partnership along with Thomas Smith Tait; the London practice now became Sir John Burnet & Partners, although still not completely separate from the Glasgow practice of John Burnet & Son which was managed by Norman Aitken Dick. Burnet's office was very busy over the ensuing years but Burnet's design role gradually diminished. He was still very much in charge of the work for the Imperial War Graves Commission and at the French classical-modern Vigo House on Regent Street. He also had a considerable influence on Adelaide House, the mullioned grid of which was a post-war development of his McGeoch warehouse in Glasgow even if the details were both more classical and more Egyptic: Burnet sent Tait out to Port Tewfik to supervise the work and take a look at Egyptian architecture, sensing that it was about to become fashionable. But although Burnet received the Royal Gold Medal in 1923 and was elected RA in 1925, he was now much more limited in what he could do and his role became much more supervision of the office and the contribution of ideas to work in hand. Financial anxiety during the war and after it as a result of the disasters in the Glasgow office aggravated his eczema, forcing him to wear skullcap and gloves, and limiting his ability to draw. Tait took over the design work completely at the Daily Telegraph Building and at Lloyds Bank on Cornhill, even although these still had marked Burnetian elements: only in the partial redesign of Lomax Simpson's Unilever House did Burnet have a direct hand, having been asked to deal with the commission himself. Unusually for a partner Raeside's role throughout was office manager and accountant, possibly with an element of quantity surveying. Burnet's infirmities perhaps made that role more important than it would otherwise have been. Frederick McManus remembered him as being 'a good-looking city gent sort of chap' who was good with corporate clients. Raeside died prematurely in 1928. His role in the office was ultimately taken over by Francis Lorne whose approach was much more entrepreneurial.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this architect:
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland	Private	Before 1914	Before 1914	Place of birth
	Montague Place, London, England	Business	Before 1914	1928

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this architect (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	(Sir) John James Burnet	Before 1914	c. 1914		Office Manager
	(Sir) John Burnet & Partners	1918	1928	Partner

References

Currently, there are no references for this architect. 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.