Basic Biographical Details Name: | Edwin Evan Smith | Designation: | | Born: | 1870 | Died: | 1965 | Bio Notes: | Edwin Evan Smith was born in Montrose in 1870, the son of George Smith, and educated at Montrose Academy. He was articled to John Sim of Montrose in 1885 and passed the South Kensington examinations in building construction, free-hand drawing, perspective, geometry and modelling, but whether through local classes or in London is not stated. He emigrated to Queensland, Australia with his parents in 1889, taking the opportunity to make brief study tours in Italy and Sicily en route. There he worked first for George Henry Male Addison of Oakden, Addison & Kemp on the large Exhibition Building in Brisbane, and then for Charles McLay, assisting him with his designs for the Queensland Museum in 1890-91. When that project failed to materialise he was sent to open a branch office in Toowoomba, where he opened his own office in 1897. This seems not to have prospered as he obtained a position as temporary draughtsman with the Queensland Public Works Department on 24 October 1898, an appointment made permanent on 1 July 1899. This enabled him to marry Margaret Mackenzie Lindsay on 27 October 1900, their house in Stuckey Road being given the name Glenesk.
Smith's subsequent career was wholly a successful public service one, initially as assistant to Thomas Pye and John Smith Murdoch, his first independent project being the extension of the Government Printing Offices in Brisbane in 1910, for which he modelled the sculpture. He was then admitted LRIBA on 20 July 1911, his proposers being Alfred Herbert Foster, Alexander Brown Wilson and Robin Smith Dods. On 21 June 1912 he took up an appointment as architect with the Commonwealth Works Department in Sydney under Murdoch, returning to Brisbane in 1917 as Commonwealth State Works Director. In 1923 he was appointed State Government Architect for Victoria, and in 1929 State Government Architect for New South Wales, having been admitted FRIBA in August of the previous year.
Smith retired in 1935. Throughout his career he had been active, having been president of the Queensland Architectural Association and Honorary Secretary of the Queensland Architectural Society. He was also a painter and potter as well as an architect and sculptor, and was honorary secretary of the Queensland Art Society in 1906-11 and its President in 1919-21.
Smith died in 1965 at the age of 95. His daughter Treania became a founder of the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Glenesk, Stuckey Road, Brisbane, Australia | Private | 1911 * | | | | 15, Brook Street, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia | Private | 1928 * | | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployers
RIBARIBA Proposers
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Watson, Donald and McKay, Judith | 1994 | Queensland Architects of the 19th Century | | Brisbane: Queensland Museum | p164 |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | L v20 no1592; F no2617 (box 9) |
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