Basic Biographical Details

Name:	James Smith Richardson
Designation:
Born:	2 November 1883
Died:	12 September 1970
Bio Notes:	James Smith Richardson was born in Edinburgh on 2 November 1883, the son of Dr James T Richardson and nephew of the anatomist Arthur Thomson. The family moved to North Berwick in 1889. Richardson was educated at Abbey School, and was articled to James Macintyre Henry c.1899-1903, during which period he studied at the School of Applied Art. His interest in archaeology was encouraged by his father from an early age and a paper on 'Prehistoric Remains near Gullane' was published in PSAS as early as 1902. In 1903 he entered Sir Robert Lorimer's office as an assistant and in 1906 he made a study tour of English church woodwork with Aymer Vallance. In 1909 he commenced practice on his own account, from 19 Randolph Place, Edinburgh, his first significant works being woodwork at St Baldred's Church, North Berwick (1910) and the restoration from ruins of Teampull Mholuidh, Eoropie, Barvas (1911-12), when he opened an office at 4 Melville Street. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland in 1912 and on 2 March 1914 he was appointed part-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments in H M Office of Works under Sir Charles Peers. The practice was closed in 1914 for the war. Richardson had been a volunteer in the Royal Scots since 1900 and was commissioned in the local battalion, serving in Ireland and France and reaching the rank of Captain. Richardson resumed practice in Melville Street in 1919. In the Spring of 1920 he took John Ross McKay into partnership. McKay, born in 1884, had been a fellow student at the School of Applied Art. Like Richardson he had worked for Lorimer, and had returned to Lorimer's office as chief assistant after the First World War, during which he had served as a staff captain under one of Lorimer's clients, General Hunter-Weston of Hunterston. Hunter Weston had invited him to stay for a weekend and Lorimer had instructed him to decline as he did not think it appropriate that an assistant should be a guest of a client; he went, and he was either dismissed or reacted by resigning on the following Monday. It was a partnership of the disaffected as Richardson also felt embittered about Lorimer, whom he regarded as having 'pinched' one of his clients shortly after setting up in practice. On 8 November 1920 Richardson was appointed full-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments, and in 1922 John Begg invited him to become a part-time lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, mainly in architectural history. He did not give up his partnership, a number of clients coming to the practice as a result of his official duties, but thereafter McKay did most of the work. Richardson and McKay had their revenge on Lorimer in the matter of the Scottish National War Memorial, which Richardson opposed through the Ancient Monuments Board as its secretary - in a letter to fellow architect Robin Smith Dods, Lorimer described him as a 'wild talking irresponsible devil of a secretary' who had been 'trying hard to wreck it, incidentally with the hope of wrecking me'. In November 1922 Richardson succeeded in defeating Lorimer's scheme by erecting a canvas mock-up which Lorimer described as a 'nightmare erection' which gave no 'adequate idea of the silhouette … or of its light shade or colour'. As Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Richardson brought a great many monuments into guardianship with the support of Sir John Stirling Maxwell, Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board, and Sir Lionel Earle, Permanent Secretary of the Office of Works, working closely with the Office of Works architect J Wilson Paterson, an association which had gone sour by the 1930s with what George Hay described as 'silly quarrels'; and from the late 1930s his power and influence declined as the result of the appointment of an administrative head at the Office, D L McIntyre VC. Between December 1924 and February 1926 Richardson & McKay were joined in practice at 4 Melville Street by Donald MacDonald MacKie (born 1897), a former pupil of Lorimer who had completed his apprenticeship with McKay after the First World War and had worked as assistant to the firm from May 1922 to May 1924. It is unclear whether a formal partnership existed or whether MacKie simply worked independently from a shared office, but MacKie left in February 1926 to live and work at his own premises of Coltbridge Studio, Murrayfield. Richardson's partnership in Richardson & McKay came to an end in 1942 when McKay merged the practice with that of William James Walker Todd, and in 1946 he gave up teaching at Edinburgh College of Art. By those dates such activities were perhaps seen as incompatible with his full-time appointment as Principal Inspector, a post from which he retired in 1948 at the age of sixty-five. In 1949 he gave the Rhind lectures on 'The Medieval Stone Carver in Scotland', eventually published in book form in 1964. In his retirement Richardson advised the National Trust for Scotland on the restoration of the garden at Pitmedden and lectured on its cruises; and he was consultant to the Queen Mother on the restoration of the Castle of Mey which was executed by Sinclair Macdonald. In 1952 the RSA made him Honorary Professor of Antiquities and in 1957 he established the Burgh Museum at North Berwick of which he was given the Freedom in 1967. Richardson suffered a severe heart attack in 1969 and died at North Berwick on 12 September 1970. In person he was bespectacled, 6 feet tall, big-boned but very slim, and slightly stooped in conversation with those of lesser height. He was a master of stagecraft when lecturing on site, an accomplishment he passed on to his successor, Stewart Cruden. He had what was described as a puckish, occasionally barbed sense of humour - which could be mischievous - often expressed in cartoon and verse. He had remarkable serendipity in obscure salerooms and at auctions, sometimes acquiring for himself and sometimes for the National Museum; and as his PSAS obituarist recorded, 'helpers were drawn from all walks of life' and included not only his custodians but some rather odd vagrants who were trained to pick up interesting material from demolition sites and even dustbins.

Private and Business Addresses

The following private or business addresses are associated with this :
	Address	Type	Date from	Date to	Notes
	19 (or 14?), Randolph Place, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	1909	December 1911	Richardson's first independent office
	4, Melville Street, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	1912	1913	Office closed 1914-19, due to war
	4, Melville Street, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	1919	1937	Reopened after war and remained until 1937, the last appearance of the Richardson & McKay practice
	122, George Street, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	c. 1920	1939 or after 1940	Address of HM Office of Works - as Inspector of Ancient Monuments
	19, Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland	Private	c. 1927	c. 1934
	54, Manor Place, Edinburgh, Scotland	Business	1938

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
	James Macintyre Henry	c. 1899	c. 1903	Apprentice
	(Sir) Robert Stodart Lorimer	1903	1909(?)	Assistant
	H M Office of Works (later Ministry of Works, Department of the Environment and Property Services Agency)	1914	1914		Part-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments
	H M Office of Works (later Ministry of Works, Department of the Environment and Property Services Agency)	1920	After 1935		Full-time Inspector of Ancient Monuments
	Richardson & McKay	1920	1942	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
	J Simpson Fyfe	Late 1912	1913	Assistant
	William Davidson	c. 1918		Assistant(?)
	George Hay	October 1933	1937	Assistant	In H M Office of Works, Edinburgh

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
		19 Rothesay Terrace			Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations - date unknown
		19-25 Rothesay Terrace			Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations to no 19
	1904	Rood Well	Stenton		East Lothian	Scotland	Proposed restoration
	1909	19 Claremont Crescent			Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations and additions
	1909	Bellevue	Coldstream		Berwickshire	Scotland	Alterations and additions
	1909	Fampton	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Addition for Miss Mitchell
	1909	Roller Skating Rink	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1910	St Baldred's Episcopal Church	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Wooden chancel screen with gates; 'angel screen' at side chapel; memorial panelling at pulpit and mural tablet
	1911	Blair Adam	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	Additions, including new stair
	1911	St Moluag's Church, Eoropie	Barvas	Lewis	Ross and Cromarty	Scotland	Restoration of ruins
	1912	Hill House	Balerno		Midlothian	Scotland
	1912	Seafield House	West Barns		East Lothian	Scotland
	c. 1912	Dean Castle	Kilmarnock		Ayrshire	Scotland	Consulted with Ingram and Brown
	1914	Erskine UF Church, Robinson Memorial	Annan		Dumfriesshire	Scotland
	1919	Dungallan House	Oban (near)		Argyll	Scotland	New entrance, bathrooms, dormer window etc
	1919	War memorial	Oban		Argyll	Scotland
	1919 or c. 1920	North Berwick War Memorial	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	From obituary and Dean of Guild. B of S says he designed it, with Alexander Carrick carrying out the carving
	1921	79 Great King Street			Edinburgh	Scotland	Alterations
	1922	Belhaven House	Belhaven		East Lothian	Scotland	Alterations
	1922	Caley Picture House			Edinburgh	Scotland
	1923	Dunfermline War Memorial	Dunfermline		Fife	Scotland	Competition design - not successful?
	1923	Feuing, North Berwick Mains	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1923	Squash Court, 12 Abercromby Place			Edinburgh	Scotland
	1924	Belton	Gullane		East Lothian	Scotland
	1924	Dirleton Parish Church	Dirleton		East Lothian	Scotland	Alterations
	1924	Frosts, 67-81 Shandwick Place			Edinburgh	Scotland	Reconstruction, including shopfront
	1924	Nungate	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland	HS claims that Richardson was responsible
	1924	The Gatehouse	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1925	Auchindoune	Liberton		Edinburgh	Scotland
	1925	Kinleith Mill	Currie		Midlothian	Scotland	Alterations
	1926	30 Moray Place			Edinburgh	Scotland
	1926	Blanerne	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1926	House for Mrs Beveridge	Dirleton		East Lothian	Scotland
	1927	Fowler's Motor Garage	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1929	Dean Castle	Kilmarnock		Ayrshire	Scotland	New gatehouse, courtyard walls and other work
	1929	House for Miss Bruce		Iona	Argyll	Scotland
	1929	Houses for G Fowler	North Berwick		East Lothian	Scotland
	1930	Linlithgow Palace, fountain	Linlithgow		West Lothian	Scotland	Reconstruction of fountain in courtyard
	Before 1931	New Abbey, Sarcophagus Monument to Devorgilla			Kirkcudbrightshire	Scotland	Design based on sketch by Richardson, as Inspector of Ancient Monuments
	1933	Loch Doon Castle	Dalmellington		Ayrshire	Scotland	Castle moved under his superintendence
	1934	Edzell Castle and gardens	Edzell		Angus	Scotland	Layout and planting of garden. As Inspector of Ancient Monuments.
	1936	Melrose Abbey, Commendator's House	Melrose		Roxburghshire	Scotland	Restoration - J Wilson Paterson and/or J Smith Richardson responsible (sources vary)
	c. 1950	Castle of Mey	Canisbay		Caithness	Scotland	Consultant to Queen Mother for scheme executed by Sinclair Macdonald
	1956	Pitmedden House	Udny		Aberdeenshire	Scotland	Fountain reconstructed from fragments and oversaw the reconstruction of parterres. Creation of Great Garden after initial planting by George Barron.

References

Bibliographic References

The following books contain references to this :
	Author(s)	Date	Title	Part	Publisher	Notes
	Post Office Directories
	RIBA	1939	The RIBA Kalendar 1939-1940		London: Royal Institute of British Architects

Periodical References

The following periodicals contain references to this :
	Periodical Name	Date	Edition	Publisher	Notes
	Proceedings of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland	1960	102		vii-x, 1969/1970: obituary

Archive References

The following archives hold material relating to this :
	Source	Archive Name	Source Catalogue No.	Notes
	Professor David M Walker personal archive	Professor David M Walker, notes and collection of archive material		Personal information supplied to David M Walker by R G Cant, Alfred G Lochhead, Stewart Cruden, and George Hay.