William Lethaby

• Name — William Lethaby • Born — 18 January 1857 • Birthplace — Barnstaple, Devon, England • Died — 17 July 1931 • Place of death — Bayswater, Middlesex, England • Significant Buildings — Avon Tyrell House; Melsetter House

Lethaby was born in Barnstaple, Devon, the son of a fiercely Liberal craftsman and lay preacher. After studies at Barnstaple Art School he moved to Duffield, Derbyshire, to work in the office of Richard Waite, a local architect, during which time his measured drawings of Wingfield Manor were published in the Building News. He won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Soane Medallion in 1879 and moved to London as Chief Clerk to architect Richard Norman Shaw. Shaw quickly recognized Lethaby's talent as a designer and Lethaby was to contribute significant pieces of work to major Shaw-designed buildings such as Scotland Yard in London and Cragside in Northumberland. While working for Shaw, Lethaby became involved in the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which campaigned to preserve the integrity and authenticity of older buildings against the Victorian practice of 'improving' them to the point of almost completely rebuilding and redesigning them. Through this he became a personal friend of Arts and Crafts Movement pioneers William Morris and Philip Webb, becoming a significant and influential member of their circle and acting as co-founder of the Art Workers Guild in 1884, being elected Master in 1911. He was a lifelong socialist. The Guild was formed from a nucleus drawn from two separate groups, the St George's Art Society, a group of architects who had seen service in the offices of Norman Shaw, including Ernest Newton, Mervyn Macartney, Reginald Barratt, Edwin Hardy, Lethaby and Edward Schroeder Prior, and the Fifteen, founded by the designer and writer Lewis Foreman Day and the illustrator and designer Walter Crane. Prior wrote the prospectus for the Guild. It initially met in Newton's chambers by St George's Church, Bloomsbury.

In 1894 Lethaby was appointed Art Inspector to the Technical Education Board of the newly formed London County Council. Here he had a pioneering role in developing education in the fine and practical arts, most notably as the founder of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1896. His most significant innovations lay in breaking down academic barriers between design (perceived as an artistic and intellectual pursuit) and production (widely perceived as the less sophisticated activity of the craftsman or artisan). Lethaby believed that this was an artificial distinction and sought to have both taught as equally valuable parts of the process of producing a high quality end-product.

In 1901 Lethaby was appointed the first Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art. This, coupled with his appointments as Principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1902 and as Surveyor of Westminster Abbey in 1906 meant that he was increasingly devoted to the academic study of the theory and history of architecture and design. He effectively ceased architectural practice around this time, though he remained an immensely influential figure through his writings and teaching. Lethaby's role as a guide and mentor to German Cultural Attaché Hermann Muthesius during his investigations into English architecture was to prove particularly significant in the light of Muthesius's later role as an influence on the early pioneers of the Bauhaus. At Westminster Abbey, Lethaby was able to put into practice his belief in sympathetic and historically accurate restoration, conducting extensive research into the history of its structure and design and largely setting the template that the restoration and preservation of historic buildings was to follow for the rest of the century. Lethaby died on 17 July 1931 at Bayswater in London. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire.

• Avon Tyrrell House, near Burley, Hampshire (1892) • The Hurst, Hartopp Road, Four Oaks, Birmingham (1894) - largely demolished • 122–124 Colmore Row (Eagle Insurance Offices), Birmingham (1900) • Melsetter House, Gatehouse, Lodge and Chapel, Hoy, Orkney (1900) • High Coxlease House, Lyndhurst, Hampshire (1902) • All Saints' Church, Brockhampton, Herefordshire (1902)