William Gordon Dey FRIBA (1911-1997) was a Scottish architect. He was a partner in the influential firm of Gordon & Dey which specialised in college buildings and had a long-running working relationship with Moray House School of Education.
He was the son of Alexander John Dey FRSE (1868-1937) a pharmaceutical and manufacturing chemist, originally from Rothiemay, [1] and his wife Isabella Scott Robertson. He was born at home, 9 Regent Terrace, on Calton Hill in Edinburgh on 29 April 1911. [2] He was educated at the Royal High School almost adjacent to his home. In 1929 he began studying Architecture at the Edinburgh College of Art. Here he met and befriended his future business partner, Esmé Gordon. [3]
In his year out (1933-4) he made a study tour of Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. He then worked under William Kininmonth in the offices of Rowand Anderson & Paul. In 1935 he undertook a study tour of Paris and London and enrolled in Britain’s first Town Planning course, under Frank Mears in Edinburgh. He concurrently helped the then-elderly John Begg in one of his final projects: the Westfield Autocar project in Stirling. [4] In December 1935 he qualified RIBA, giving both his home and business address as Rothiemay, 22 St John’s Road, Edinburgh: a large Victorian villa on the east side of Corstorphine. In 1936 he briefly joined the City Architect’s Department under Ebenezer James MacRae and undertook the condition survey of the Canongate prior to its redevelopment.
In 1937 he joined the office of Alexander Esme Gordon as an architect, working on the transport pavilion for the Glasgow Empire Exhibition. However this was interrupted by the Second World War. Initially he joined the Scots Guards but then undertook officer training at Sandhurst and received a commission to serve in the Gordon Highlanders. He saw active service with the 8th Army in Egypt, including El Alamein, and rose to the rank of captain. He received an early de-mob in 1945 to help with the Clackmannan County Plan under James Shearer but in 1946 returned to his friend Esme Gordon as a full partner, thereafter known as Gordon & Dey. The company moved from 20 Dovecot Road in Corstorphine to 36 Heriot Row in the New Town as their fortunes grew. [5]
He died at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh on 16 October 1997.
Dey lived all his adult life in Corstorphine and was a keen local historian, writing Corstorphine: A Pictorial History of a Midlothian Village (1990). He was an active member (and Honorary President) of the Corstorphine Trust and oversaw the archive held in the Dower House.
He was a member of the Scottish Council for Spastics in Edinburgh and of the Abbeyfield Trust (housing the elderly). He served as a Special Constable for thirty years after the war and received a long-service medal for this role. He was also the official assistant to the Master at the Merchant Company of Edinburgh.
He served first as an Elder then as Session Clerk in St Anne’s Church Corstorphine, a post he held for 17 years.
He was married to Elizabeth (Betty) Margaret Corrigall (d.2011) in 1939.
William Burn was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival, often referred to as the golden age of Scottish architecture.
Corstorphine is an area of the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. Formerly a separate village and parish to the west of Edinburgh, it is now a suburb of the city, having been formally incorporated into it in 1920.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox, 6th Seigneur d'Aubigny of the Château d'Aubigny at Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry, France, was a Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favourite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland. Esmé Stewart was the first cousin of James' father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Despite his conversion to Calvinism he was never trusted by the Scots and returned to France where he ended his days. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature upright, just and gentle". He was the first to popularise the firstname Esmé in the British Isles.
The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town.
The Moray House School of Education and Sport is a school within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. It is based in historic buildings on the Holyrood Campus, located between the Canongate and Holyrood Road.
Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes. As a key figure in introducing the Palladian style into Scotland, he has been compared to the pioneering English architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and to the contemporaneous introducers of French style in English domestic architecture, Hugh May and Sir Roger Pratt.
James Smith was a Scottish architect, who pioneered the Palladian style in Scotland. He was described by Colen Campbell, in his Vitruvius Britannicus (1715–1725), as "the most experienced architect of that kingdom".
William Wallace was a Scottish master mason and architect. He served as King's Master Mason under James VI.
John Mylne, sometimes known as "John Mylne junior", or "the Younger", was a Scottish master mason and architect who served as Master Mason to the Crown of Scotland. Born in Perth, he was the son of John Mylne, also a master mason, and Isobel Wilson.
Ian Gordon Lindsay was a Scottish architect. He was most noted for his numerous restoration projects, sometimes of whole villages but curiously was also involved in the design of several hydro-electric power stations.
John Kinross was a Scottish architect. He was particularly skilled in traditional styles and was highly involved in the restoration of historic buildings, researching his subjects well before any project.
Ebenezer James MacRae was a Scottish architect serving as City Architect for Edinburgh for most of his active life.
Architecture in early modern Scotland encompasses all building within the borders of the kingdom of Scotland, from the early sixteenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. The time period roughly corresponds to the early modern era in Europe, beginning with the Renaissance and Reformation and ending with the start of the Enlightenment and Industrialisation.
John Chesser (1819-1892) was a nineteenth-century Scottish architect largely based in Edinburgh. He was described as "the prime exponent of terrace design at the time". A very high number of his works are now category A listed buildings, evidencing the quality of his work, particularly in the West End of Edinburgh.
Robert Philip Andrew Hurd was an influential conservation architect. His original aim was to be an architectural author specialising in traditional forms. He came to Scotland in 1930 and worked at the Edinburgh College of Art for two years as assistant to the architect and planner Frank Mears. He was an early and highly respected conservation architect and wrote and broadcast on Scottish architecture, planning and reconstruction.
Robert Wilson was architect for the Edinburgh Board of Education and responsible for a high percentage of the city's schools. He is also noteworthy for involvement in several institutions aimed at improving the life of the poor and destitute in the city.
Peter MacGregor Chalmers LLD was a Scottish architect specialising in country churches, and also being involved in several important restoration schemes.
Harold Ogle Tarbolton FRIBA (1869–1947) was a 19th/20th century British architect, mainly working in Scotland. He was affectionately known as Tarrybreeks. In later life he went into partnership with Sir Matthew Ochterlony to create Tarbolton & Ochterlony.
William Sibbald (c.1760–1809) was a Scottish architect. He was superintendent of public works in Edinburgh and assisted Robert Reid in setting out and designing the Second New Town.
Alexander Esmé Gordon was a Scottish Modernist architect, writer, and painter who served as Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy between 1973 and 1978.
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