Architects

Name:

James Smith Richardson

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

02/11/1883

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Date of Death:

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Exact DOD:

12/09/1970

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Bio Notes :

James Smith Richardson was born in Edinburgh on 2 November 1883, the son of Dr James T Richardson and nephew of the anatomist Arthur Thomson. The family moved to North Berwick in 1889. Richardson was educated at Abbey School, and was articled to James Macintyre Henry c.1899-1903, during which period he studied at the School of Applied Art. His interest in archaeology was encouraged by his father from an early age and a paper on 'Prehistoric Remains near Gullane' was published in PSAS as early as 1902.

In 1903 he entered Sir Robert Lorimer's office as an assistant and in 1906 he made a study tour of English church woodwork with Aymer Vallance. In 1909 he commenced practice on his own account, from 19 Randolph Place, Edinburgh, his first significant works being woodwork at St Baldred's Church, North Berwick (1910) and the restoration from ruins of Teampull Mholuidh, Eoropie, Barvas (1911-12), when he opened an office at 4 Melville Street. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland in 1912 and on 2 March 1914 he was appointed part-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments in H M Office of Works under Sir Charles Peers.

The practice was closed in 1914 for the war. Richardson had been a volunteer in the Royal Scots since 1900 and was commissioned in the local battalion, serving in Ireland and France and reaching the rank of Captain.

Richardson resumed practice in Melville Street in 1919. In the Spring of 1920 he took John Ross McKay into partnership. McKay, born in 1884, had been a fellow student at the School of Applied Art. Like Richardson he had worked for Lorimer, and had returned to Lorimer's office as chief assistant after the First World War, during which he had served as a staff captain under one of Lorimer's clients, General Hunter-Weston of Hunterston. Hunter Weston had invited him to stay for a weekend and Lorimer had instructed him to decline as he did not think it appropriate that an assistant should be a guest of a client; he went, and he was either dismissed or reacted by resigning on the following Monday. It was a partnership of the disaffected as Richardson also felt embittered about Lorimer, whom he regarded as having 'pinched' one of his clients shortly after setting up in practice.

On 8 November 1920 Richardson was appointed full-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and in 1922 John Begg invited him to become a part-time lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, mainly in architectural history. He did not give up his partnership, a number of clients coming to the practice as a result of his official duties, but thereafter McKay did most of the work. Richardson and McKay had their revenge on Lorimer in the matter of the Scottish National War Memorial, which Richardson opposed through the Ancient Monuments Board as its secretary - in a letter to fellow architect Robin Smith Dods, Lorimer described him as a 'wild talking irresponsible devil of a secretary' who had been 'trying hard to wreck it, incidentally with the hope of wrecking me'. In November 1922 Richardson succeeded in defeating Lorimer's scheme by erecting a canvas mock-up which Lorimer described as a 'nightmare erection' which gave no 'adequate idea of the silhouette … or of its light shade or colour'. As Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Richardson brought a great many monuments into guardianship with the support of Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board, and Sir Lionel Earle, Permanent Secretary of the Office of Works, working closely with the Office of Works architect J Wilson Paterson, an association which had gone sour by the 1930s with what George Hay described as 'silly quarrels'; and from the late 1930s his power and influence declined as the result of the appointment of an administrative head at the Office, D L McIntyre VC.

Between December 1924 and February 1926 Richardson & McKay were joined in practice at 4 Melville Street by Donald MacDonald MacKie (born 1897), a former pupil of Lorimer who had completed his apprenticeship with McKay after the First World War and had worked as assistant to the firm from May 1922 to May 1924. It is unclear whether a formal partnership existed or whether MacKie simply worked independently from a shared office, but MacKie left in February 1926 to live and work at his own premises of Coltbridge Studio, Murrayfield.

Richardson's partnership in Richardson & McKay came to an end in 1942 when McKay merged the practice with that of William James Walker Todd, and in 1946 he gave up teaching at Edinburgh College of Art. By those dates such activities were perhaps seen as incompatible with his full-time appointment as Principal Inspector, a post from which he retired in 1948 at the age of sixty-five. In 1949 he gave the Rhind lectures on 'The Medieval Stone Carver in Scotland', eventually published in book form in 1964.

In his retirement Richardson advised the National Trust for Scotland on the restoration of the garden at Pitmedden and lectured on its cruises; and he was consultant to the Queen Mother on the restoration of the Castle of Mey which was executed by Sinclair Macdonald. In 1952 the RSA made him Honorary Professor of Antiquities and in 1957 he established the Burgh Museum at North Berwick of which he was given the Freedom in 1967.

Richardson suffered a severe heart attack in 1969 and died at North Berwick on 12 September 1970. In person he was bespectacled, 6 feet tall, big-boned but very slim, and slightly stooped in conversation with those of lesser height. He was a master of stagecraft when lecturing on site, an accomplishment he passed on to his successor, Stewart Cruden. He had what was described as a puckish, occasionally barbed sense of humour - which could be mischievous - often expressed in cartoon and verse. He had remarkable serendipity in obscure salerooms and at auctions, sometimes acquiring for himself and sometimes for the National Museum; and as his PSAS obituarist recorded, 'helpers were drawn from all walks of life' and included not only his custodians but some rather odd vagrants who were trained to pick up interesting material from demolition sites and even dustbins.

'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	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
19 Rothesay Terrace Edinburgh Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To	Notes
19 (or 14?) Randolph Place Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1909	1911/12	Richardson's first independent office
4 Melville Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1912	1913	Office closed 1914-19, due to war
4 Melville Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1919	1937	Reopened after war and remained until 1937, the last appearance of the Richardson & McKay practice
122 George Street Edinburgh Scotland	Business	c. 1920	After 1939\|1940	Address of HM Office of Works - as Inspector of Ancient Monuments
54 Manor Place Edinburgh Scotland	Business	1938

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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	Notes
(Sir) Robert Stodart Lorimer	200052	In year 1903	In year 1909	Assistant
H M Office of Works (later Ministry of Works, Department of the Environment and Property Services Agency)	201531	In year 1914	In year 1914		Part-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments
H M Office of Works (later Ministry of Works, Department of the Environment and Property Services Agency)	201531	In year 1920	After 1935		Full-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments
Richardson & McKay	202924	In year 1920	In year 1942	Partner
James Macintyre Henry	200309	c. 1899	c. 1903	Apprentice

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

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position	Notes
George Hay	203257	1933/10	In year 1937	Assistant	In H M Office of Works, Edinburgh
J Simpson Fyfe	207358	Late 1912s	In year 1913	Assistant
William Davidson	200692	c. 1918		Assistant

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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	Island	City or County	Country	Notes
Rood Well	In year 1904	Stenton		East Lothian	Scotland	Proposed restoration
Bellevue	In year 1909	Coldstream		Berwickshire	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Fampton	In year 1909	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Addition for Miss Mitchell
19 Claremont Crescent	In year 1909			Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Roller Skating Rink	In year 1909	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
St Baldred's Episcopal Church	In year 1910	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Wooden chancel screen with gates; 'angel screen' at side chapel; memorial panelling at pulpit and mural tablet
St Moluag's Church, Eoropie	In year 1911	Barvas	Lewis	Ross and Cromarty	Scotland	Restoration of ruins
Blair Adam	In year 1911	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Additions, including new stair
Hill House	In year 1912	Balerno		Midlothian	Scotland
Seafield House	In year 1912	West Barns		East Lothian	Scotland
Dean Castle	c. 1912	Kilmarnock		Ayrshire	Scotland	Consulted with Ingram and Brown
Erskine UF Church, Robinson Memorial	In year 1914	Annan		Dumfriesshire	Scotland
War memorial	In year 1919	Oban		Argyll	Scotland
Dungallan House	In year 1919	Oban (near)		Argyll	Scotland	New entrance, bathrooms, dormer window etc
North Berwick War Memorial	c. 1919\|1920	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	From obituary and Dean of Guild. B of S says he designed it, with Alexander Carrick carrying out the carving

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
Post Office Directories
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940	1939	London: Royal Institute of British Architects

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The following periodicals contain references to this person:

Period ref classic

Periodical Name	Publisher	Date Circ	Edition	Notes
Proceedings of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland		1960	102	vii-x, 1969/1970: 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
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			Personal information supplied to David M Walker by R G Cant, Alfred G Lochhead, Stewart Cruden, and George Hay.

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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