Ernest Tatham Richmond (15 August 1874 – 5 March 1955) was a British architect, who worked in Egypt, Britain, France and the Holy Land.
Biography
Ernest Tatham Richmond was born in
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, London,
on 15 August 1874. He was the younger son of the painter and designer, Sir
William Blake Richmond
Sir William Blake Richmond KCB, , PPRBSA (29 November 184211 February 1921) was a British painter, sculptor and a designer of stained glass and mosaic. He is best known for his portrait work and decorative mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral in ...
. He qualified as an architect in 1900; but in 1895 had already visited
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and assisted
Somers Clarke
George Somers Clarke (1841–1926) was an architect and English Egyptologist who worked on the restoration and design of churches and at a number of sites throughout Egypt, notably in El Kab, where he built a house. He was born in Brighton.
As ...
with his book on the temple of
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
.
From 1902 to 1903 Richmond served in the
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
on construction works for the British army of occupation in Egypt. In 1904 he was appointed architect in the Ministry of Works, and rose to be Director of the Department of Towns and State buildings, serving in that capacity until 1911, when he returned to private practice in Britain. In 1906 he married Margaret Muriel Lubbock.
[E. T. Richmond Papers, Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections](_blank)
.
During
the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Richmond worked for the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
from 1914–16, joining up at first in the Ambulance Corps. After suffering an injury to his hand from a grenade, he was appointed Architect to the War Graves Service,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, 1917–18.
After the War he was recruited as Consulting Architect to the
Haram ash-Sharif
The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compou ...
,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, 1918–20, and afterwards as Assistant Civil Secretary (Political), Government of Palestine, 1920–24 - a post from which he resigned in protest against the pro-
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
policy of the British Government.
In 1926 Richmond was converted to
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
Christianity; and thereafter his Christian faith played a greater part in his life and writings.
From 1927 to 1937 Richmond served as
Director of Antiquities for the Government of Palestine. Afterwards he returned to Britain and settled in Gloucestershire, where he continued to write and take an interest in Palestine affairs.
He died aged 80 in 1955.
The archive of his papers is held by the
University of Durham
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...
.
E. T. Richmond Papers
.
Notes
References
*Wasserstein, Bernard (1991). ''The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and he Arab-Jewish Conflict'', 1917–1929, 2nd Edition. Blackwell.
Further reading
*
External links
Books by Ernest RichmondCatalogue of Richmond's Papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Ernest Tatham
20th-century English architects
Architects in Mandatory Palestine
1874 births
1955 deaths
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Administrators of Palestine
High Sheriffs of the County of London