Skip to Main Content

Practices

Basic Biographic Details

Shearer & Annand
Architectural practice
Year Only
1952
Year Only
1994
James Grant Shearer was born at Morton Lodge, Dunfermline on 6 April 1881, the eldest son of James Shearer, variously described as a linen manufacturer and damask pattern designer, and his first wife Agnes Donaldson Smith. The Shearer family originated from Craigellachie, Banffshire, Shearer's grandfather, also James, moving south and settling in Dunfermline sometime before 1854. Shearer was educated at Dunfermline High School and apprenticed to Thomas Hislop Ure in September 1897. Through the recommendation of Francis H Newbery, Director of Glasgow School of Art and art consultant to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust he secured a place as assistant in the office of John Burnet & Son in Glasgow in November 1901, becoming a senior assistant in the following year. While there he studied at Glasgow School of Art. He remained in the Glasgow office until March 1906 when he left, partly for health reasons, partly to widen his experience. It is not clear what he did immediately thereafter as he did not commence practice at 1 Bonnar Street Dunfermline until February 1907.

Shearer's practice was immediately successful, gaining commissions for a shop and bakery at Lochore, a warehouse for Dick's Co-operative Institution and an office and warehouse for R E Walter Reid & Co. In 1908 he took on his younger brother Thomas Smith Shearer as an apprentice and subsequently assistant. By 1912 he was sufficiently prosperous to undertake a study tour in Germany and in 1913 he was commissioned by the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust to build a large extension to James Campbell Walker's library in Dunfermline, a former colleague in Burnet's office, Herbert Lewis Honeyman, being recruited to help detail it.

In 1914 Shearer married Jessie (known as 'Jen' or 'Jennie') Gorrie, the daughter of a Dunfermline solicitor Donald Gorrie who had been a client of Ure's and built a house at Crossford. In the same year he prepared the 'Report on Local Housing Conditions with Preliminary Sketch Plans and Suggestions in Support of a Scheme of Municipal Building' commissioned by Dunfermline Town Council at the suggestion of Andrew Carnegie but in August 1916 Shearer was called up for military service, initially with the Royal Highland Regiment at Norwich but from 1917 with the Royal Engineers, and the scheme fell into abeyance.

Shearer recommenced practice at Bonnar Street after his release in February 1919 but moved to Queen Anne Street c.1920. He was formally appointed consultant architect to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in 1922, the former commissioning the Carnegie Birthplace Memorial in 1925, Carnegie himself having died in 1919. It led to a visit to the United States to visit Mr Carnegie and the several Carnegie institutions in Pennsylvania in February to March 1925. The appointment did not however, prove exclusive as Jamieson & Arnott were commissioned to design the Louise Carnegie Memorial Gates and the rival Dunfermline architect John Fraser the Tea Room and Music Pavilion in Pittencrieff Park in 1927-28.

In 1931 Shearer's practice moved to 11 Maygate; on his father's death in that year he also moved house from Crossford to Morton Lodge. In 1935 he designed the Fire Station at Dunfermline which showed that he had kept abreast of developments in the practice of Burnet Tait & Lorne, although most of his work was to remain of a traditional character. The Town Council appointed him town-planning consultant in 1938, Clackmannan following with a similar appointment in 1944. He was also Consulting Architect to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association from 1940 until at least 1943.

Shearer was active in professional life. He was an active Fellow of the RIAS from 1922 and was a member of its Council, serving on its Education Committee and being its representative on the ARCUK Board of Architectural Education and on the RIBA Board of Education in 1943-4. 1943 was also the year of his election as ARSA, and it was not until this year that he sought membership of the RIBA. Somewhat surprisingly he was not immediately admitted as a fellow, becoming licentiate on 16 November 1943 his proposers being Charles Geddes Soutar, John Ross McKay and the Scottish Office architect John Wilson. In June of the following year he successfully applied for Fellowship, his proposers being Alfred Hugh Mottram, Joseph Weekes, the Dunbartonshire County Architect and an old colleague from Burnet's office, Alexander Wright. In 1946 he was invited to join the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board's panel of architectural advisers, leading to major work at Shin in Sutherland, Conon in Ross and Cromarty and Affric-Beauly in Inverness-shire, all of rugged masonry construction but stylistically with echoes of Burnet's work in the early 1920s and of the Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok: Shearer visited Dudok at Hilversum early in 1952 representing the Royal Scottish Academy which had elected him full Academician in 1948.

In the 1920s Shearer had run his office very economically with only one or at the most two assistants, but in the 1930s there were none until Peter Macdonald joined him from John Fraser's office in 1934. Printing from tracings was equally economical, still being done by an outdated ammonia-based light-sensitive process. But in 1949 he recruited George Annand, born 1915 and formerly of Burnet Son & Dick's office. He was taken into partnership in 1952. James Armstrong joined the practice as an apprentice in 1944, followed by Shearer's son James David Shearer and Edward D Armitage in 1946, Marcus Johnston joining only slightly later.

Shearer was belatedly appointed OBE in 1959 and continued to be the lead designer in the practice right up to the time of his death at Morton Lodge on 20 December 1962. He was then being cared for by his sister Nan, his wife having died in c.1930. He was buried with her at Warriston Cemetery. Annand died less than two years later in 1964 and Armstrong left for Edinburgh in 1967. The practice was continued by Shearer's son James who had previously worked for his father-in-law in Sheffield and subsequently in the London County Council/GLC Architect's Department but he too died prematurely of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1974. The practice was then continued by Marcus Johnston with Graham Withers from 1974. In 1990 it moved to 50 Bruce Street Dumfermline and they amalgamated with the practice of Mercer Blaikie which had been established about 1979 to become Blaikie Johnston Withers until its closure in 1994.

To the end of his life Shearer remained a very Edwardian-looking figure very slim and clad in a brown suit, old-fashioned high-laced boots and a broad brimmed felt hat, probably acquired for his trip to the USA in 1925. He was a very heavy smoker and spoke with a slight burr; he had a dry and sometimes pawky sense of humour which extended to verse. He was musical and played the cello. Despite the modernism of the Dunfermline Fire Station the office was deliberately kept shabby and was to remain so even after his death. In Shearer's later years the practice acquired a dyeline printer and even had a car, a yellow Austin which Shearer never learned to drive himself.

Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this architectural practice:

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2

AddressTypeDate FromDate ToNotes
11 Maygate Dunfermline Fife ScotlandPrivate/businessIn year 1950After 1980

Business Addresses

Business Addresses2

AddressTypeDate FromDate ToNotes
11 Maygate Dunfermline Fife ScotlandPrivate/businessIn year 1950After 1980
Dunfermline Fife ScotlandBusinessIn year 1952
167 Brook Street Broughty Ferry Dundee ScotlandBusinessIn year 1980Branch office

Partners, Employees and Pupils

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

Employees or Pupils2

NamePositionDate FromDate ToNotes
James Grant ShearerPartnerIn year 1952In year 1962
Marcus MacDonald JohnstonAssistantIn year 1952In year 1967
George AnnandPartnerIn year 1952In year 1964
James Brown ArmstrongAssistantIn year 1952In year 1967
James Daniel ShearerPartnerIn year 1962In year 1974
Marcus MacDonald JohnstonPartnerIn year 1967In year 1994
William Gordon WithersPartnerIn year 1974

Buildings and Designs

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

Buildings and Designs2

BuildingPartnership GPRoleDate FromDate ToTown DistrictIslandCity CountyCountryNotes
St Margaret's Parish ChurchAArchitectural practiceIn year 1975DunfermlineFifeScotland
Sligachan HotelAArchitectural practiceIn year 1930Isle of SkyeInverness-shireScotlandAdditions
Garage, Abbey Park PlaceAArchitectural practiceIn year 1940DunfermlineFifeScotlandAlterations
Cove CastleBArchitectIn year 1943CoveArgyllScotlandAlterations
Carbisdale CastleBArchitectural practicec. 1944c. 1945Culrain, KincardineRoss and CromartyScotlandAlterations
Elsick House Youth HostelAArchitectural practiceIn year 1945StrathpefferRoss & CromartyScotlandAlterations
Sligachan HotelBArchitectural practiceIn year 1945Isle of SkyeInverness-shireScotlandAlterations including new light fittings
Lochluichart Power StationAArchitectural practiceIn year 1947In year 1954LochluichartRoss & CromartyScotland
Affric Hydrio-Electric Scheme, Loch Beinn A' Mheadhoin To Fasnakyle TunnelAArchitectural practiceIn year 1947In year 1951Glen AffricInverness-shireScotland
Gruidie BridgeAArchitectIn year 1947In year 1949CononRoss & CromartyScotland
Railway CottagesAArchitectural practicec. 1947c. 1953Lochluichart (Loch Luichart)Ross & CromartyScotland
Loch Mullardoch To Loch Beinn A' Mheadhoin TunnelAArchitectural practiceIn year 1948In year 1950Glen AffricInverness-shireScotland
Logie HouseAArchitectc. 1948c. 1953DunfermlineFifeScotlandAlterations
Model VillageAArchitectural practiceIn year 1949In year 1952CannichRoss and CromartyScotland
Fasnakyle Power Station, Transformer StationAArchitectural practiceIn year 1949In year 1950Glen Affric Inverness-shireScotland

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this architectural practice:

Bib ref

AuthorTitleDatePublisherPartNotes
Pride, Glen LThe Kingdom of Fife1999The Rutland Press2nd Editionp14
RIBADirectory of Practices 19801980
Glendinning, MilesRebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75 1997Tuckwell Press Ltdp7
RIBAThe RIBA Kalendar 1950-19511950London: Royal Institute of British Architects

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this architectural practice:

Period ref

Periodical NamePublisherDate CircEditionNotes
Builder1950/4/28p570