Architects

Name:

John Thomson

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

26/06/1859

Year of Birth :

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DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

14/08/1933

Year of Death:

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Bio Notes :

John Thomson was born at 16 Darnley Terrace, Shawlands on 26 June 1859, the eldest surviving son of the architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson and his wife Jane Nicholson. He was educated at Langside Academy and Glasgow High School and was articled to his father's firm on 1 April 1875. His father had died in March of that year but the Thomson Trustees still had a controlling interest in the firm which was then headed by Robert Turnbull, his father's partner since 1871. In the following year the Thomson & Turnbull practice was merged with that of David Thomson who had succeeded to Charles Wilson's practice in 1863 and it was to David Thomson that John Thomson owed his early training as a Gothic architect.

At the end of his apprenticeship in April 1880 business was at a low ebb because of the collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank and Thomson sought experience elsewhere, but it was not until 1881, probably on Campbell Douglas & Sellars's recommendation, that he found a place with their former assistants Wallace & Flockhart in London. He enrolled first at the South Kensington Schools but on 4 July 1882 he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, becoming a registered student on 30 December. While in London Thomson also gained experience with Professor Thomas Henry Eagles at the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill and with Samuel Tucker. According to his daughter, the late Mrs Stewart, he also worked for Pearson on the drawings of Truro Cathedral but this appears to have been no more than fee-paid work recruited from the more promising students when Pearson's office was under pressure. While in London Thomson travelled extensively on architectural sketching tours and in March 1885 he was awarded a letter of merit in the Soane Medallion competition. Later in that year he won the RIBA's Silver Medal with a design for 'a municipal mansion'.

Late in 1885 or early in 1886 Thomson returned to Glasgow where he was refused re-admission to Turnbull's practice, David Thomson having left in 1883. This occasioned his mother some disappointment, but in 1886 he formed a partnership with Robert Douglas Sandilands, five years his senior, who was then an employee of the Glasgow & South Western Railway's engineering department, the practice title being Thomson & Sandilands. It was probably set up with Thomson family money.

In that same year, 1889, on 11 April, Thomson married Annie M Muir, daughter of James Muir, patter designer and ward of the Shields family who lived next door to the Thomsons in Moray Place. The ceremony was at the Cockburn Hotel. Although in the first few years Thomson was the lead partner at meetings, Sandilands gradually took over the practice. It was heavily dependent on competitions for business and except for a couple of exceptional houses the private client base remained relatively small and predominantly industrial. But by the time Thomson and Sandilands were admitted FRIBA on 11 June 1906, they had carried out £1m of work since commencing practice in 1886, a very high figure for that date. Thomson's proposers were William Leiper, William Forrest Salmon, James Miller and C J MacLean. By that date Thomson had made a study tour of France.

Sandilands died on 10 December 1913. In April of the following year Thomson entered into a partnership with his former pupil Alexander Hood MacLeod, who was at that date his chief assistant. The new partnership of Thomson Sandilands & MacLeod never engaged in large-scale competition work as it had done during Sandilands's lifetime. Initially it was based mainly on church work and private clients, mostly old ones retained from the earlier years of the practice, but from 1928 onwards it had a substantial warehouse clientele in the Glassford Street, Wilson Street and Candleriggs area. Thomson retired following a serious stroke in 1931, his wife having predeceased him much earlier on 13 August 1917. There were two sons and two daughters of the marriage but one of the daughters died in infancy in 1897. The family took long summer holidays in Arran where Thomson's interests were primarily natural history and photography, particularly colour photography after it was introduced, and sketching. He died at 19 Monreith Road on 14 August 1933, leaving estate of £5,970 11s 2d. His second son James had predeceased him as a result of a shooting accident in Rhodesia in May of that year.

'Biography authored by the Dictionary of Scottish Architects Compilation Team.'

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Notes
16 Darnley Terrace Shawlands Glasgow Scotland	Private	Place of birth
1 Moray Place Glasgow Scotland	Private
Ingleneuk Monreith Road Newlands Glasgow Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To
121 West Regent Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1888	After 1890
241 West George Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1894	1905 or 1906
4 Jane Street Blythswood Square Glasgow Scotland	Business	1905 or 1906	After 1913
248 West George Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1919	After 1930

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The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this person (click on an item to view details):

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position
Thomson Sandilands & MacLeod	204183	1914/04	In year 1931	Partner
Samuel Tucker	202072	After 1881	Before 1886	Assistant
A & G Thomson & Turnbull	201241	In year 1875	In year 1877	Apprentice
D Thomson & Turnbull	202479	In year 1877	1880/04	Apprentice
Wallace & Flockhart	201193	In year 1881	Before 1885	Assistant
Thomson & Sandilands	200930	In year 1886	1914/04	Partner

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The following individuals proposed this person for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Proposer	Proposer Link	Date Proposed	Notes
James Miller	200001	1906/06/11	for Fellowship
William Leiper	200002	1906/06/11	for Fellowship
William Forrest Salmon	200030	1906/06/11	for Fellowship
C J MacLean	204047	1906/06/11	for Fellowship

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This person proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Person	Date Proposed	Notes
Alexander Gairns Laskie	1912/06/24	for Licentiateship
William Wallace Friskin	Early 1914s	for Associateship
Thomas Blair Moncrieff Wightman	In year 1917	for Associateship
Alexander Gardner	1925/11/30	for Fellowship
William Raymond Boyd Bertram	Early 1928s	for Associateship
Robert Henderson Motion	1930/10/15	for Licentiateship

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
Queen's Park UP Church and Hall	In year 1881		Glasgow	Scotland	New organ and screen and renewal of colouring
Terraced house, Kenmure Street	In year 1887		Glasgow	Scotland
Lanark Fever Hospital	In year 1888	Lanark	Lanarkshire	Scotland
UP Church	In year 1888	Glenluce	Wigtownshire	Scotland	Won competition and secured job
Tenement for W & J Brown	In year 1888		Glasgow	Scotland
Design for a municipal mansion	In year 1888
Design for a villa	In year 1888
Tenement for John Shand	After 1888		Glasgow	Scotland
City of Glasgow District Asylum for Pauper Lunatics	In year 1889	Gartcosh	Glasgow	Scotland	Won competition and secured job
Stirling High School	In year 1889	Stirling	Stirlingshire	Scotland	Competition design- possibly not considered as not meeting the Stirling area residential test
Design for a theological college	In year 1889
Design for a school	In year 1889
Whithorn UP Church	In year 1891	Whithorn	Wigtownshire	Scotland
Workshop for Alexander Stewart	In year 1892		Glasgow	Scotland
Old Parish Church	In year 1893	Nairn	Nairnshire	Scotland	Competition design - not successful

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher
Post Office Directories
Glasgow Contemporaries	Glasgow Contemporaries at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century	1901
Johnston, W T	Artists of Scotland	2003	Officina Publications CDROM
Mireylees, Suzanne	In the shadow of Gartloch: The life and work of John Thomson & Robert Douglas Sandilands	2005	Unpublished PhD thesis, University of St Andrews
Williamson, William	Robert Turnbull IA of Lenzie	2011

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Publisher	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
RIBA Journal		1934/05/19	v41	p716 - obituary

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
RIBA Nomination Papers	RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum	100005			F v17 p55 no1124 (microfilm reel 12)
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			Information on marriage and death from research by Iain Paterson

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

RIBA Proposals

RIBA PROPOSALS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

Bibliographic References

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