Basic Biographical Details Name: | Peter Dunbar Lawson | Designation: | | Born: | 11 August 1910 | Died: | March 1989 | Bio Notes: | Peter Dunbar Lawson was born in Leven on 11 August 1910, the son of William Dunbar Lawson, master grocer, and his wife Helen Purvis Brown.
From May 1926 to September 1933 he worked in the office of Briggs & Thornley in Liverpool. From the latter year he spent five years at the School of Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art including a post-gradudate year spent studying town planning, with the aid of a scholarship. He also won a silver medal and the Rowand Anderson Scholarship which enabled him to make a three-week study tour in France. He sat the final exam in June 1939 and was was elected ARIBA in 1940. He later made a second trip to sturdy contemporary French architecture.
During the Second World War Lawson served as a Flying Office with the RAF. After demobilisation he was senior town planning assistant to Sir Patrick Abercrombie from 1945-47, working on the replanning scheme for Edinburgh. In 1948 he emigrated to Northern Rhodesia to take up a post as Senior Architect in the Public Works Department there. In 1956 at the time of his election to FRIBA he was still in this post. He was proposed by Alfred Lloyd Spencer, George Clifford Duke and Cedric George Tilley. Spencer in his statement made special mention of Kabulanga Secondary School in Lusaka which Lawson had designed and noted that it was 'classed as one of the best designed schools in Southern Africa'.
He returned to England prior to 1970 and died in Worthing, Sussex in March 1989.
| Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Kinnoul, Redford Avenue, Colinton, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1940 * | | | | Public Works Department/PO Box 137, Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia | Business | 1948 | After 1955 | | | 32 , Cecil Rhodes Drive, Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia | Private | 1948 | After 1955 | | | c/o Westminster Bank, Fore Street, Tainton, Somerset, England | Private | 1960 * | | | | Cherry Mere, Basingfield Road , Thames Ditton, Surrey, England | Private | 1970 * | | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployers
RIBARIBA ProposersRIBA ProposalsThis proposed the following individuals for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date proposed | Notes | | John Ronald Beaton | 11 April 1961 | for Fellowship |
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | RIBA | 1970 | RIBA Directory 1970 | | | |
Archive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | England and Wales | Births, marriages and deaths | | | | National Archives (via Scotlands People) | Statutory births | | | | RIBA Archive, Victoria & Albert Museum | RIBA Nomination Papers | | A no7418, F no5019 (Combined Box 57) |
|