Architects

Name:

John Fairweather

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

02/05/1867

Year of Birth :

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Date of Birth Before (Year):

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DOB (1st 'Or' Year):

DOB (2nd 'Or' Year):

Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

13/01/1942

Year of Death:

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Bio Notes :

John Fairweather was born at 11 Franklin Terrace, Anderston, Glasgow on 5 February 1867, the son of John Fairweather, a farmer, draper and mercantile clerk in the wool trade who came from Alyth, and his wife Elizabeth Brown Fyfe who came from Leuchars. He attended the College of Science & Arts (Glasgow?) in 1881, and was articled to James Milne Monro from 16 January 1882 until 1887, remaining as chief assistant thereafter and studying at Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. He passed the qualifying exam in March 1894 and was admitted ARIBA on 11 June that year, his proposers being William Forrest Salmon, Campbell Douglas and Thomas Lennox Watson. At that time he was still working for Monro and resided at 41 Buccleuch Street, and prior to that he had spent a total of five months on sketching tours throughout Scotland and in England, in particular in Yorkshire and London.

He commenced practice on his own account in 1895, initially at 11 Bothwell Street, and his early independent work consisted largely of plain tenements for J & T McNair, builders, in the east end of the city. He made his name with the East End Exhibition buildings in Duke Street, Dennistoun of 1903. By the time of his admittance as FRIBA in early 1916, for which his proposers were Monro, John Watson and William Gardner Rowan, he was practising from 136 Wellington Street and was living at 'Glengarry', Stepps, near Glasgow.

In 1922-23 Fairweather visited the USA on behalf of George Green to study theatre and cinema design in which he had specialised since becoming architect to Green in 1913. Whilst there he studied in particular the work of the Scottish-born cinema specialist Thomas Lamb.

Fairweather had married Evelyn Ronaldson in 1906 and their son William John Fairweather, born on 28 April 1907, joined his father as an apprentice in September 1925, commencing his studies at Glasgow School of Architecture two years later. He graduated BSc in October 1931, passed the Professional Practice exam in Edinburgh in December the same year and received his diploma in architecture in June 1932. This enabled him to be admitted ARIBA late that year, his proposers being his father, Thomas Harold Hughes and William James Smith. His nomination papers state that he had travelled to Holland in 1927, to Belgium in 1929 and to Belgium and Germany in 1930. He became his father's partner in 1936 or 1938 (sources vary), probably having continued as his assistant prior to that date.

John Fairweather was killed as a pedestrian whilst crossing Cumbernauld Road in Stepps, during the wartime blackout, on 13 January 1942 and was buried in Bedlay Cemetery, Moodiesburn. He was survived by his wife and his son, who was on active service in India at the time, having joined the armed forces in 1940. William returned to the office in 1945 and continued the practice under the same name of John Fairweather & Son until 1947, after which he appears to have used his name alone.

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
4 Scotia Street Glasgow Scotland	Private
41 Buccleuch Street Glasgow Scotland	Private
Merlewood Stepps Lanarkshire Scotland	Private
Glengarry/5 Whitehill Avenue Stepps Lanarkshire Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date To
11 Bothwell Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1895	After 1900
136 Wellington Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1905	After 1914
182 Trongate Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1920	After 1936
29 Renfrew Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	1939

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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
John Fairweather & Son	204418	1936 or 1938	In year 1942	Partner
James Milne Monro	200122	In year 1882	In year 1887	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
Thomas Gilchrist Gilmour	201324	1902/03	1903/07	Assistant
James Napier	201847	1905/12/05	In year 1910	Apprentice
William John Fairweather	201161	1925/09	1927/09	Apprentice
William John Fairweather	201161	After 1927	1936 or 1938	Assistant	Probably assisted for at least some of this period, prior to partnership
Frank Flood MacDonald	205165	In year 1926	In year 1929	Assistant
Daniel MacKay (or McKay)	206269	In year 1929	In year 1929	Assistant
James Bunyan	204312	In year 1930	In year 1931	Senior Draughtsman
Alexander Budge Reid	403626	In year 1930	In year 1935	Apprentice
James Monteith McLean	202147	c. 1908	In year 1914	Apprentice	Remained as assistant until 1914
William Scott Munro	206273	c. 1930	c. 1939

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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
Thomas Lennox Watson	100031	1894/06/11	for Associateship
Campbell Douglas	200794	1894/06/11	for Associateship
William Forrest Salmon	200030	1894/06/11	for Associateship
James Milne Monro	200122	Early 1916s	for Fellowship
William Gardner Rowan	202381	Early 1916s	for Fellowship
John Watson	203278	Early 1916s	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
Andrew Rennie Crawford	1911/07/20	for Licentiateship
John Barbour	Early 1911s	for Licentiateship
Charles James McNair	1912/04/22	for Licentiateship
James Napier	1918/12/16	for Associateship
John Glen Dunn	Early 1920s	for Fellowship
James Murdoch Dalziel Henderson	Late 1921s	for Associateship
Alexander Gardner	1925/11/30	for Fellowship
William John Fairweather	Late 1932s	for Associateship
Thomas Barclay	1940/08/13	for Licentiateship
Alexander Budge Reid	1941/06/17	For Licentiateship
Frank Flood MacDonald	1941/10/21	for Licentiateship - sole proposer

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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
Westerton	In year 1896	Milngavie	Dunbartonshire	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Business premises and residence	In year 1896	Lockerbie	Dumfriesshire	Scotland
Villa	In year 1897	Dumbreck	Glasgow	Scotland
48-52 Cowgate	In year 1900	Kirkintilloch	Dunbartonshire	Scotland
The Cliff, House and Stables	In year 1901	Wemyss Bay	Renfrewshire	Scotland	Additions and stables
Glasgow East End Industrial Exhibition 1903\|1904	In year 1903	Dennistoun	Glasgow	Scotland	Buildings
Workshop, Espedair Street	In year 1903	Paisley	Renfrewshire	Scotland	Plans dated
Townhead Public Library	In year 1904	Townhead	Glasgow	Scotland	Won competition to secure job
Motor House, Glenfinlas Street	In year 1905	Helensburgh	Dunbartonshire	Scotland
Riddrie Housing Estate	In year 1907	Riddrie	Glasgow	Scotland	Second premiated design for layout of estate
Higher Grade School	In year 1908	Cambuslang	Lanarkshire	Scotland
Cookery Centre etc for Cambuslang School Board	In year 1908	Cambuslang	Lanarkshire	Scotland
Public School	In year 1910	Stepps	Lanarkshire	Scotland
Kirkton UF Church	In year 1910	Carluke	Lanarkshire	Scotland	Decoration
Gateside Public School	In year 1912	Cambuslang	Lanarkshire	Scotland	Design selected by School Board. Obtained commission

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Notes
RCAHMS	Dundee on Record	1992	RCAHMS	Green's Playhouse, Dundee - p57
Walker, Frank Arneil	South Clyde Estuary: An Illustrated Architectural Guide to Inverclyde and Renfrew	1986		p145
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1930-1931	1930	London: Royal Institute of British Architects
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
Builder		1942/01/23	v 162	p78 - obituary
Cinema Theatre Association Bulletin		1982/11	v 16

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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			A v12 p122 (microfiche 56/G4); F no1593 (microfilm reel 13)
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			Personal information from William John Fairweather, 1970; additional 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

Employees or Pupils

Employees or Pupils2 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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Periodical References

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Archive References

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