Basic Biographical Details

Name: The Hon Claud [Stephen] Phillimore
Designation:  
Born: 15 January 1911
Died: 23 March 1994
Bio Notes: Claud [Stephen] Phillimore was born on 15 January 1911, the second son of the 2nd Baron Phillimore, owner of an estate in Kensington and his Scottish first wife, Dorothy Barbara Haig of Bemersyde. He was educated at Winchester and had become interested in architecture at the age of twelve when his stepmother was having some houses built. He then read architecture at Trinity College, Cambridge under the classicist David Theodore Fyfe, then director of the School of Architecture there, graduating in 1933. In 1934 he made a cycling tour of Palladian villas, during which he so impressed Bertie Landsberg at the Villa Malcontenta that it was subsequently bequeathed to him.

Phillimore began his practical experience with the builders Cubitts and for a time was assistant to Robert Atkinson. He commenced independent practice in 1937. In the following year, 1938, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery as a Territorial and spent the Second World War in the Middle East taking part in the Battle of El Alamein and rising to the rank of major.

Phillimore resumed practice in 1947 and took into partnership Aubray Jenkins, a friend at the Cambridge School. He specialised in country house work, either adapting existing houses to post-war conditions or more usually, building new ones. These unfortunately included the complete demolition and replacement of Tusmore, Oxfordshire and Abercairney and the reduction of Gask by the demolition of its attics: a further scheme of reduction was planned at Brechin Castle but not implemented. All of his work was in a simplified neo-Georgian or Regency manner, the quality of which depended very much on what the client wanted: material from previous houses was frequently re-used. His drawings had great elegance and charm, annotated in a beautiful script and sometimes drawn without a ruler with a slightly wavy line.

Phillimore did not enjoy particularly good health. His war experience left him with a legacy of TB which necessitated a period of hospitalisation at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers at Horsham in the 1950s.

He retired in the early 1970s, handing over his work still in hand to Donald Install, and retired to Italy. By that date he had returned the Villa Malcontenta to its original Foscari owners and rented an 18th century villa in the Dolomites.

On the premature death of his nephew, Robert Godfrey Phillimore, he became the 4th Lord Phillimore in 1990. He died in Italy on 29 March 1994. He was survived by his widow, Anne Elizabeth Dorrien-Smith whom he had married in 1944, his son Francis Stephen Phillimore and a daughter Miranda, who married Thomas Walter Montagu Douglas Scott in 1973.

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
 NameDate fromDate toPositionNotes
Item 1 of 2Robert Atkinson1930s Assistant 
Item 2 of 2James Cubitt and Partners1930s Assistant 

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
 Date startedBuilding nameTown, district or villageIslandCity or countyCountryNotes
Item 1 of 2After 1960Abercairney  PerthshireScotlandNew house
Item 2 of 21964Gask HouseGask PerthshireScotlandReduction of house by removal of attics

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
 Author(s)DateTitlePartPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 1Robinson, John Martin1983The Latest Country Houses   

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
 Periodical NameDateEditionPublisherNotes
Item 1 of 1The Times4 April 1994  Obituary