Basic Biographical Details | Name: | William Stirling IV | | Designation: | | | Born: | 24 July 1861 | | Died: | April 1902 | | Bio Notes: | William Stirling IV was born at Dunblane on 24 July 1861, the only son of William Stirling III, architects and his wife Agnes Douglas, daughter of Dr Douglas, Dunblane. William Stirling III died on 16 February 1867 when his son was only 5 years old, but in 1873 the Stirling family obtained a place for him as a Foundationer at Fettes College. There he remained until April 1879 when he was articled to ‘Mr Burnet, Glasgow’, almost certainly John Burnet Senior rather than Frank Burnet who had only just commenced practice.
Stirling’s experience working under John James Burnet, then only recently returned from Paris, enabled him to obtain a place in the office of the London theatre architect Charles James Phipps at the end of his articles in April 1884. At that date he appears to have been living at 10 Grenville Street, Brunswick Square, the address he gave when applying for a British Museum reader’s ticket in May. Within a year of his arrival in London he was exhibiting student designs at the Royal Academy, suggesting that he had enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, though that still has to be confirmed. At that date he was in rooms at 51 Great Percy Street. By 1893 he had obtained a place with Professor Thomas Rodger Smith as a demonstrator in architecture and construction at University College, quickly rising to an assistant’s post, a context in which his unwillingness to sit, or inability to pass, the qualifying exam remains a puzzle. In parallel with his teaching appointment Stirling appears to have had a small private practice from his rooms at 8 Upper Chadwell Street and later – from at least 1894 – Albion Chambers at 11 Adam Street, Adelphi.
Although contemporaries believed that his means were slender, Stirling provided financial support for his mother and unmarried sister in Dunblane, and was a significant collector of rare books. He became acquainted with Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham whose father had probably been a client of his father and grandfather on the Gartmore estate, and through Cunninghame Graham, he became a member of the artistic and literary circle which included William Rothenstein, Wyndham Lewis and William Butler Yeats. By 1897 Stirling had researched and written ‘The Canon - An exposition of the pagan mystery perpetuated in the cabala as the rule of all the arts’ anonymously published in that year by Elkin Mathews with a preface by Cunninghame Graham. It was financed by the gold mining magnate Henry William Henderson Dunsmure of Glenbruach, Callander. This work contained a good deal of Vitruvian material, and was to have been supplemented by a second book ‘Tradition, the memory of the sixteenth century Milanese architect, Cesaro de Cesarius, the translator of Vitruvius.
From late in 1901 or very early in 1902, Stirling began to suffer from paranoid mental problems. The actor and Shakespearian scholar Harley Granville-Barker took rooms in Albion Chambers, and in hoping to make his acquaintance gave Stirling the impression he was being ‘spied on’. In April 1902 Stirling committed suicide in his rooms at Albion Chambers: the official record of the incident has been lost. His sister Anne arranged his funeral and inherited most of his possessions. ‘Tradition’, which was then a mixture of manuscript and typescript, was bequeathed to Rothenstein who returned it to Anne. She appears to have sold it to or through High William Davies in 1929-30. Its location is not at present known. Anne died in 1943 at the age of 80.
| Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | Glasgow, Scotland | Business | April 1879 | | | | 10, Grenville Street, Brunswick Square, London, England | Private | April 1884 | | | | 51, Great Percy Street, London, England | Private | 1893 | | | | 8, Upper Chadwell Street, London, England | Private | After 1893 | | | | Albion Chambers/11 Adam Street, Adelphi, London, England | Private | 1894 | | |
Employment and TrainingEmployers| The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | John Burnet (senior) | April 1879 | | Apprentice | | | Charles John Phipps | 1884 | | Assistant | |
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Fettes College | 1932 | Fettes College Register 1870-1932 | | | | | Heertum, Cisca van | 2007 | This Mysterious Individual, William Stirling, unpublsihed letters relating to the author of the Canon, 1897 | | English Studies | | | Rothenstein, William | 1932 | Men and Memories | | | |
Periodical References| The following periodicals contain references to this : | | | Periodical Name | Date | Edition | Publisher | Notes | | Stirling Observer | 3 May 1902 | | | |
Archive References| The following archives hold material relating to this : | | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | National Library of Scotland | Cunninghame Graham archive | | | | Professor David M Walker personal archive | Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material | | Information from Cisca van Heertum, Curator, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (email 29 September 2006) |
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