Basic Biographical Details

Name:	Frank Drummond Thomson
Designation:
Born:	1882
Died:	16 August 1961
Bio Notes:	Frank Drummond Thomson was born in 1882, the son of James Thomson, then a senior assistant in the office of the City Engineer, Francis Mackison, and was also educated at Dundee High School. About 1898 he was articled to Thomas Martin Cappon. He did not like Cappon or his work - 'you can't imagine how I felt having to draw out such terrible stuff' - but in Cappon's senior assistant, William Gillespie Lamond, he found a good teacher; and like his elder brother Henry he attended the Technical Institute where another disciple of Lamond's, Patrick Hill Thoms ('the best [architect] we ever had in Dundee'), had begun teaching architecture. About 1902 Frank moved to London as assistant to Niven & Wigglesworth, working mainly with Niven on the Dundee Courier Building. His salary was augmented by evening and weekend work from his father who was appointed City Architect in 1905 following the death of William Alexander in the previous year, and City Engineer after the dismissal of William Mackison in 1906. From his London lodgings he designed the Blackness and Coldside libraries and negotiated with the sculptor Albert Hodge whom he already knew from his work on the Courier Building. In the same year, 1906, his brother Henry, who was by then in independent practice, secured the commission for the King's Theatre in Dundee, and asked Frank, then still in London with Niven & Wigglesworth, to design it. Frank was already well equipped for the task. He had a good singing voice and was thoroughly familiar with London's theatreland. He thus had some knowledge of the practical requirements from the beginning. He bought a copy of Sachs 'Modern Theatres and Opera Houses', and designed the project from his London lodgings. In the later stages he was taken into partnership by his brother, some time before the opening on 15 March 1909, enabling him to marry and set up house in Cupar. Before the theatre was completed the original promoter who had a link with the D'Oyly Carte Company had embarrassed himself and his backers deserted him, the project being taken over by another local syndicate, United County Theatres, who brought in an untraced English consultant named Ward (perhaps an assistant in one of the larger theatre architects' offices) to complete it with more elaborate plasterwork ('all right if you like that kind of thing'). In 1911 the partnership won the competition for St John's Cross Church, a burgh church transferred to the Blackness area and shortly thereafter Frank moved to Daisybank, Maryfield where he lived for the rest of his life. But by the beginning of the First World War the partnership had run into difficulty. Harry was more socialite than worker, and although the practice had prospered he had borrowed heavily from his brother partly to finance his move from Yew Bank Avenue to Oakley Place in Queen Street. Their problems came to a head over unpaid tradesmen, a matter which went to court where Frank had to give evidence which contradicted that of his brother. The practice was damaged by the publicity the case received and the partnership was dissolved: 'he broke it, I didn't, I always regretted it,' Frank observed some forty years later, although Harry's debts had never been repaid. After the war Harry and Frank practised independently but on 2 November 1921 Harry died from a fall in the stairwell of a Broughty Ferry hotel when leaning out to turn off a gaslight. Frank's health was affected and in 1922 his father sent him to Finland to convalesce. He recovered but with a slight tremor which affected his line when drawing freehand: while at Niven & Wigglesworth he had learned to draw to scale without a measuring stick ('saves a lot of time'). But in the meantime his chief assistant William M Patrick had set up in practice on his own account and a number of clients were lost. In 1924 his father joined the practice on his retirement from the posts of City Architect and Director of Housing. There was no formal partnership and he dealt with clients and site supervision rather than design matters until his death in November 1927. Thereafter Frank Thomson's practice remained small but fastidious, famed for the sheer quality and quantity of working drawings for every project. Thomson was active in professional life, serving as a member of the Council of the Dundee Institute of Architects c.1930, but he never sought membership of the RIBA. In his last years Frank Drummond Thomson worked completely alone in a small dark office in the Nethergate, surrounded by a magnificent library. He died still in practice on 16 August 1961. His wife had died three years earlier but he was survived by his daughters Gertie and Trixie. Although Colin McWilliam had appealed to him to bequeath his drawings to NMRS some years earlier, they destroyed his records in accordance with his wishes. Trixie herself died on 26 November 2015.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	26, Castle Street, Dundee, Scotland	Business	Before 1909	After 1911
	11, Nethergate, Dundee, Scotland	Business	1930 or 1931 *	1939 or 1940(?)

* earliest date known from documented sources.

Employment and Training

Employers

The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	Thomas Martin Cappon	c. 1898	c. 1902	Apprentice
	Niven & Wigglesworth	c. 1902	1908	Assistant
	H & F Thomson	1908	c. 1914	Partner

Employees or Pupils

The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details):
	Name	Date from	Date to	Position	Notes
	William Macfarlane Patrick	1918 or 1919	c. 1921	Assistant
	Charles Fell Duncan	1919	1921	Junior Assistant
	Arthur George Wright Ogilvie	January 1919	July 1919	Senior Assistant
	James Deuchars	September 1922	September 1927	Apprentice
	James Thomson	1924	November 1927	Partner	Unofficial partner
	George Watt	1924	1928	Apprentice
	James Deuchars	September 1927	February 1932	Assistant
	William Sinclair Gauldie	c. 1934(?)	c. 1939(?)	Apprentice

Buildings and Designs

This was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):
	Date started	Building name	Town, district or village	Island	City or county	Country	Notes
		Cinema	Hilltown		Dundee	Scotland
		Cinema	Lochee		Dundee	Scotland
		Forfar and Kincardine Hall			Dundee	Scotland	Interior work - no date. Only minor work executed
	1906	Blackness Library			Dundee	Scotland	Frank working for his father, then City Architect, 1905-08
	1906	Coldside Library	Hilltown		Dundee	Scotland	Working for his father
	1906	King's Theatre and Hippodrome			Dundee	Scotland	Completed in association with ___Ward
	1909	Factory (hackle-making works) fronting North Lindsay Street			Dundee	Scotland	Original building
	1909	Warehouses, Laing Street			Dundee	Scotland
	1910	Eagle Buildings			Dundee	Scotland
	1910	St David's Parish Church hall			Dundee	Scotland
	1910	Two-storey shopfronts, Overgate			Dundee	Scotland
	1910	Whitehall Works			Dundee	Scotland	Extension
	1911	Masonic Hall	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	1911	St John's Cross Church and halls			Dundee	Scotland
	1911	Ward Road public gymnasium			Dundee	Scotland	Gallery added
	1912	Loftus Tea Rooms	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	1913	Broughty Picture House	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	1913	Factory (hackle-making works) fronting North Lindsay Street			Dundee	Scotland	Extension
	1913	G L Wilson's Department Store			Dundee	Scotland
	1915	Frew's Bar			Dundee	Scotland	Interior refitted
	1919	Caledon Shipbuilding Company offices and model room			Dundee	Scotland
	1919	Offices, entrance hall and new bond for Cream of the Barley			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1920	417, 418, 419 Blackness Road			Dundee	Scotland
	1921	Drumfork House	Blacklunans		Perthshire	Scotland	Completion of alterations and interior work, taking over from Andrew Grainger Heiton as a result of illness and inability to complete drawings
	1922	Craigie Garden Suburb			Dundee	Scotland	Designed housing
	1923	Broughty Ferry Library	Broughty Ferry		Dundee	Scotland	Drew up plans - not executed. Gifford gives James Thomson 1923 as architect and date. Other sources disagree.
	1923	Semi-detached houses, East Haddon Road			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1923	Caird Hall			Dundee	Scotland	Unexecuted classical scheme for flanking buildings - circumstances of preparation unclear
	c. 1923	Semi-detached houses, Greendykes Road			Dundee	Scotland
	1927	Alhambra Cinema			Dundee	Scotland
	c. 1927	Franchi's Restaurant			Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	'The Bungalow'			Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	16A Lammerton Terrace			Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	21 Bingham Terrace			Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	6 Castle Terrace			Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	House in Strips of Craigie Road	Craigiebank		Dundee	Scotland
	1930s	Villas, Kinsway			Dundee	Scotland
	1930	Park, Hill of Kirriemuir, Barrie Pavilion and Camera Obscura	Kirriemuir		Angus	Scotland	Won competition to secure job
	1937	Craigiebank Church and Hall	West Ferry		Dundee	Scotland
	1943	Hall Church	Linlathen		Dundee	Scotland

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
	Author(s)	Date	Title	Part	Publisher	Notes
	Horan, Martin	2001	The King's, God's and Commoners
	RCAHMS	1992	Dundee on Record		RCAHMS	Aerial view of Craigiebank Garden Suburb built in 1937 showing Craigiebank Parish Church p52
	RIBA	1939	The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940		London: Royal Institute of British Architects

Archive References

The following archives hold material relating to this :
	Source	Archive Name	Source Catalogue No.	Notes
	Courtesy of Iain Flett, Dundee City Archivist	Email to Yvonne Hillyard		Courtesy also of Mark Watson, HES - originally information from Councillor Fraser Macpherson's blog.
	Professor David M Walker personal archive	Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material		Copy of letter from Trixie Thomson to Historic Buildings and Monuments 10 July 1990; personal information from Frank Thomson, Gertie and Trixie Thomson, and W Sinclair Gauldie