Percy Johnson-Marshall

In 1962, he founded the planning consultancy Percy Johnson-Marshall & Associates, commissioned to masterplan the University of Edinburgh's Comprehensive Development Area in the 1960s. The practice involved urban planning and redevelopment in the UK and abroad. He is well known for being the main Architect of Celtic Park.

Percy Johnson-Marshall studied at University of Liverpool. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is urbanism and design. Employment is recorded with University of Edinburgh. Works named in the authority record are McDiarmid Park and Celtic Park. Distinctions recorded are Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.

• Name — Percy Johnson-Marshall • Honorific Suffix — CMG • Birth Name — Percy Edwin Alan Johnson-Marshall • Born — 20 January 1915 • Birthplace — Ajmer, British Raj • Died — 14 July 1993 (aged 78) • Education — Liverpool University • Relatives — Stirrat Johnson-Marshall (brother)

Johnson-Marshall was born in Ajmer, India, to English parents, and was raised in England from the 1920s. He attended the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, where his older brother, Stirrat Johnson-Marshall, was already studying. Tutors at Liverpool included Sir Patrick Abercrombie and Sir Charles Herbert Reilly. After graduating in 1936 he worked for Middlesex County Council, then for Willesden Borough Council, before moving to Coventry City Council in 1938, where he worked as Senior Assistant Architect under Chief Architect Donald Gibson, until called up for war service in 1941. He was elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1938. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Engineers in India and Burma, attaining the rank of Major. Post-war, he remained in Burma for a year, advising the Burmese Government on planning and reconstruction, and preparing a reconstruction plan for the country, in collaboration with William Tatton Brown. After his return to the UK, he was employed as an Assistant Regional Planning Officer at the new Ministry of Town and Country Planning, during which time the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, the first planning law in the UK, was drawn up. In 1947, he was elected member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), as a council member and of the Education Committee. In 1948, he gained a Diploma in Town Planning from the School of Planning and Research for Regional Development (SPRRD), London, where he later worked as a part-time teacher. Johnson-Marshall worked as a Senior Planner with London County Council from 1949 to 1959, overseeing several Comprehensive Development Areas, including Lansbury Estate.

In 1959, Johnson-Marshall was appointed Senior Lecturer in the University of Edinburgh's Department of Architecture. A new department of Urban Design and Regional Planning was established in 1964, with Percy Johnson-Marshall as the first professor, within the School of the Built Environment headed by Sir Robert Matthew. He founded the planning Research Unit at the University, which was involved in preparing several regional plans for areas of southern Scotland, and undertook regional surveys for the Scottish Development Department. In 1966 his book Rebuilding Cities was published. In recognition of his services to the planning profession, Johnson-Marshall was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1975. In 1985 he retired from the professorship, to become director of the Patrick Geddes Centre for Planning Studies. He suffered an illness in 1987–1988, and retired as director as a result.

The authorities additionally record the heading Percy Edwin Alan Johnson-Marshall. His recorded language was English.

Percy Johnson-Marshall is recorded as having received Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.