Architects

Name:

Walter Underwood

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

19/11/1906

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Date of Death:

Exact Date

Exact DOD:

13/04/1988

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Bio Notes :

Walter Underwood was born in Shettleston on 19 November 1906, the son of Matthew Underwood, Inspector of Buildings and Annie Eliz [sic] Tait. He married Mary Campbell Gunn, daughter of David Flett Gunn, wine and spirit merchant, at All Saints Episcopal Church, Jordanhill on 31 January 1933.

Underwood was educated at Allan Glen's School, Glasgow. He served his articles with Balfour & Stewart from 1922-27. The following year he obtained a senior certificate from Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Technical College, passing 'with distinction'. He then spent 14 months as assistant to James Lochhead in Cullen Lochhead & Brown in Hamilton but transferred to a similar position with Wylie Shanks & Wylie in Glasgow. In 1934 he moved to become an assistant with Joseph Weekes, the Dumbarton County Architect during which time 'he showed marked ability in the planning and design of schools, police stations, housing schemes, public health clinics and local government administration buildings'. In he moved to Nottingham Corporation.

Underwood returned to Scotland to the post of Chief Architect to the Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Society from at least 1939 until 1945. (some sources indicate that he worked for the SCWS in the early 1930s but his Fellowship Nomination Paper makes no reference to this). He was admitted ARIBA in 1933 and FRIBA in 1947. In April of the previous year he had joined the practice of Wylie Shanks & Wylie as partner. The firm name was not changed to Wylie, Shanks & Underwood until the death of Edward Grigg Wylie in 1954.

In May 1960 Underwood broke away and set up under the style of Walter Underwood & Partners. He took Michael Beale and T George Low with him from the Wylie Shanks practice. They operated from 2 La Belle Place. David J Leslie, James M Paton and William McLean who had been assistants with the Wylie practice left to join Underwood and became partners in 1964.

Although his architecture was very modern Walter Underwood was very much an old-school Glasgow professional gentleman. One of his last undertakings, carried out after he had officially retired, was the conservation of the village of Luss in which he took a close personal interest. He reired from the practice on 9 September 1985.

He had served as Governor of Glasgow School of Art and as President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects and Vice President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

Underwood died at 1 Belmont Road, Glasgow on 13 April 1988. His death was reported by his daugher J M Staples, then of 8 Gamekeeper's Road, Edinburgh.

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
36 Willowbank Street Glasgow Scotland	Private
6 Bowmont Terrace Glasgow Scotland	Private
Tamarac Moor Road Strathblane Stirlingshire Scotland	Private

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Business Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From	Date From Type	Date To	Date To Type	Notes
204 West Regent Street Glasgow Scotland	Business	Before 1933		After 1947
2 La Belle Place Glagow Scotland	Business	Before 1964

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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
Scottish Co-Operative Wholesale Society (SCWS) Architectural Department (CWS Ltd Architecture & Design)	203784	In year 1939	In year 1946	Chief Architect
Wylie, Shanks & Wylie	204056	In year 1946	In year 1957	Partner
Wylie, Shanks & Underwood	204058	In year 1949	In year 1960	Partner
Walter Underwood & Partners	400968	In year 1960	After 1975	Partner

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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
James Symington Houston	206259	In year 1932	After 1945	Assistant	In SCWS Architect's Department

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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
Andrew Balfour	100136	Early 1933s	for Associateship
William Fraser Tytler Stewart	100138	Early 1933s	for Associateship
(Professor) William James Smith	201070	1947/03/11	for Fellowship
Joseph Weekes	201497	1947/03/11	for Fellowship
William McCrea	203743	1947/03/11	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
David Graham Watson	1942/11/29	For Licentiateship
Thomas Smith Cordiner	1949/01/11	for Fellowship
George William Robertson	1950/03/07	For Fellowship
Edward Stanley Carden	1951/12/11	For Licentiateship
Arthur Stranraer Mull	1954/02/02	for Associateship
Eric Doig Ellison	1954/06/15	for Associateship
Donald John Cameron	1956/01/10	For Fellowship
Thomas George Low	1956/06/19	For Licentiateship
Eric Doig Ellison	1968/04/03	for Fellowship
William John Fairweather	1968/06/05	For Fellowship
Thomas Russell Scott	1968/06/05	For Fellowship
Richard Rudolphe Chitham De'Ath	1968/06/05	for Fellowship
William Hamilton Sanders	1968/10/02	For Fellowship
Francis Clunie Scott	1969/07/16	For Fellowship
Allen ('Mick') Short Matheson	1970/04/08	For Fellowship

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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
Petty Farms	In year 1939		Aberdeenshire	Scotland	Reconstruction - as Chief Architect of SCWS
Houses for agricultural workers	After 1939	Duns	Berwickshire	Scotland	As Chief Architect to SCWS
Retail buildings for SCWS	After 1939			Scotland	As Chief Architect to SCWS
Garage buildings for SCWS	After 1939	Pollokshaws	Glasgow	Scotland	As Chief Architect to SCWS
SCWS garage building	After 1939	Kilmarnock	Ayrshire	Scotland	As Chief Architect to SCWS
Junction Flour mills	After 1939	Leith	Edinburgh	Scotland	Reconstruction - as architect to SCWS
Crichie Flour Mills	After 1939	Crichie	Aberdeenshire	Scotland	Reconstruction - as Chief Architect, SCWS
Bacon Factory	After 1939	Enniskillen		Northern Ireland	Cold Store reconstructed - as Chief Architect to SCWS
Jute works	After 1939		Dundee	Scotland	Extensions- as Chief Architect to SCWS
Scottish Wholesale Co-operative Society, medical and welfare block	After 1939	Shieldhall	Glasgow	Scotland	As Chief Architect, SCWS
Farm steading	After 1939	Monktonhall	Ayrshire	Scotland	As Chief Architect to SCWS
Glasgow Maternity Hospital	In year 1947		Glasgow	Scotland	Alterations and additions
Royal College of Science and Technology, James Weir Engineering Building	In year 1949		Glasgow	Scotland
National Cash Registers (NCR) Factory	In year 1949		Dundee	Scotland	Extension
Rolls Royce Factory	In year 1951	East Kilbride	Lanarkshire	Scotland

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Part	Notes
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1950-1951	1950	London: Royal Institute of British Architects
Municipal Annual	Scottish Municipal Annual	1964		1964-1965

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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 no5103 (stored under F4240, combined box 3); F no4240 (combined box 3)
Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material	Professor David M Walker personal archive	100041			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

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