Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Thomas Nimmo Smith | | Designation: | | | Born: | 10 June 1906 | | Died: | 24 November 2008 | | Bio Notes: | Thomas Nimmo Smith was born in Coatbridge on 10 June 1906, the son of Thomas Smith, architect and his wife Ethel Semple. He was educated in Coatbridge and articled to his father: there is no record of him having had any more formal architectural education. He remained with his father’s practice as assistant and then partner, setting up house at 15 Dunbeth Avenue, Coatbridge, with his wife Elizabeth Betty) Watson Pettigrew.
On the outbreak of the Second World War Smith was commissioned first in the Royal Artillery at Blackpool and then in the Royal Engineers in India, his rank being Captain or Major according to circumstances. He was stationed in Blackpool when his father died in 1941. He attended the funeral by motor cycle with his seven-year-old son Thomas strapped to him on the pillion.
On demobilisation Smith became a reservist in the Territorial Army, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The Coatbridge office had remained open during the war mainly for the purpose of collecting rents from the family property in Dunbeth Square and dealing with repairs, but on Smith’s return, architectural practice was resumed with Robert Aitchison as assistant, business being at a fairly low level for the next decade because of building licensing. But thereafter Robert Hugh Gibb was recruited to open an office in Greenock where Smith already had good connections. The Marquess of Bute became an important client for work on his Bute estates, and that in turn led to an associated office in Cowal where James Guy Lindsay Pate was in charge: this proved successful, the practice being commissioned to design the swimming pool at Dunoon, a school at Sandbank and a large industrial village at Pollphail, Portavadie. In the Coatbridge office Smith was assisted by Charles Wilson Vallance Thom, the son of a provost of Coatbridge. Robert Aitchison had left to commence his own practice in Coatbridge. They were joined by Smith’s son, Thomas Smith junior, who had returned to the office after a period gaining experience with Whitehorn & Brown in Edinburgh, mainly on NCB work: as and when required Smith junior assisted Gibb in the Greenock office. Much of the Coatbridge practice’s work was for Coatbridge Town Council and included high-rise housing but a growing industrial practice, particularly in distillery work for Hiram Walker induced Smith to open a Glasgow office initially with Charles Thom in charge. William McDonald was recruited for it in 1967 and quickly became the driving force behind it, becoming a partner in 1975.
Thomas Nimmo Smith went into semi-retirement in the 1970s by which time he had become Deputy Lieutenant of Lanarkshire and Charles Thom had become a partner, moving between the Coatbridge and Glasgow offices as business required. But by then the Greenock practice was beginning to decline, partly because of changes in the client firms and partly because Gibb’s health was failing. Thomas Smith spent much of his time in Greenock to help out and regain clients. But by 1979 the practice had become so busy with territorial Army and housing association work, mainly for Kirkcare and Bield, that Thomas Smith junior bought and opened an office at 65 York Place, Edinburgh, as a more convenient base. Lack of business in the Greenock office brought about the dissolution of the partnership of Thomas Smith Gibb & Pate (neither Thom nor McDonald was ever acknowledged in the practice title) in 1983. Thomas Smith retired completely, his son retaining the Edinburgh office. Gibb retained the Greenock office, Pate now practising independently in Dunoon; and McDonald retained the Glasgow practice, each thereafter practising in his own name only.
Thoasm Nimmo Smith died at Cherryholm Residential Home, 26 Colinton Road, Edinburgh on 24 November 2008, at the age of 102.
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Employment and TrainingEmployers| The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes |  | Thomas Smith, Gibb & Pate | 1960s | After 1980 | Partner | |
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | RIBA | 1930 | The RIBA Kalendar 1930-1931 | | London: Royal Institute of British Architects | | | 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 | | H M Register House | Death Register | | |
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