Basic Biographical Details Name: | Thomson Sandilands & MacLeod | Designation: | | Born: | April 1914 | Died: | 1950s | Bio Notes: | After the death of Robert Douglas Sandilands on 10 December 1913, John Thomson entered into a partnership in April of the following year with Alexander Hood MacLeod. MacLeod had been born at Shore Street, Anstruther on 27 February 1889, the son of Pittenweem master fishcurer John MacLeod and Elizabeth Watson from Cellardyke, and had commenced his apprenticeship with a local Anstruther joiner before entering Thomson & Sandilands's office at the very early age of twelve, presumably as the office boy. It was not until 1910 that he enrolled in the Glasgow School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art under Professors Bourdon, Gourlay and McGibbon. His initial period as a partner was brief as he was called up in February 1915 and not released until 1919 when he resumed partnership with Thomson.
The new partnership of Thomson Sandilands & MacLeod never engaged in large-scale competition work as it had done during Sandilands's lifetime. Initially it was based mainly on church work and private clients, mostly old ones retained from the earlier years of the practice, but from 1928 onwards it had a substantial warehouse clientele in the Glassford Street, Wilson Street and Candleriggs area. Thomson retired in 1931 having suffered a serious stroke, and died on 14 August 1933.
The practice continued under the same name. Only when Thomson retired did MacLeod seek membership of the RIBA. He was admitted on 24 February 1932, his proposers being Andrew Graham Henderson, John Watson and David Salmond. When MacLeod died of coronary thrombosis at Anstruther on 31 December 1941 the practice was inherited by his chief assistant James Barr Brown Boyd. Boyd was born on 25 March 1899 at Kilmarnock but it is not yet known where he trained.
In the 1950s the practice was absorbed by the unrelated Thomson McCrea & Sanders, but apart from a few large competition perspectives, only the drawings for clients still current passed into their possession. Boyd then became an architect with the Corporation of Glasgow. He died in retirement on 22 March 1967. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 248, West George Street, Glasgow, Scotland | Business | 1932 * | | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployees or Pupils
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Mireylees, Suzanne | 2005 | In the shadow of Gartloch: The life and work of John Thomson & Robert Douglas Sandilands | | Unpublished PhD thesis, University of St Andrews | |
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