Florence Fulton Hobson (11 February 1881 – 1 November 1978) was an Irish architect, the first woman in Ireland licensed in that profession. The daughter of Benjamin Hobson, a grocer, and Mary Anne Bulmer, a campaigner for women's rights and amateur archaeologist, she was born in

Monasterevin Monasterevin (), also Monasterevan, and Mevin is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. The town lies on the River Barrow and the Barrowline, a canal branch of the Grand Canal. The population was 4,246 at the 2016 Census. Location and Access Sit ...

and grew up in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. She attended

Friends' School, Lisburn Friends' School, Lisburn is a Quaker voluntary grammar school in the city of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, founded in 1774. History Friends’ School Lisburn was founded – as The Ulster Provincial School – on the basis of a bequest in 1764 of ...

. Later, she studied at the

Belfast School of Art The Belfast School of Art, is a School in thUlster University Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciencesand is physically located at the Belfast campus. Following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Ulster is ranked within ...

with James John Phillips and James St John Phillips. She passed her preliminary examination with the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

(RBA) in 1899. Hobson moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where she worked in the office of

Guy Dawber Sir Edward Guy Dawber, RA ( King's Lynn, 3 August 1861 – London, 24 April 1938) was an English architect working in the late Arts and Crafts style, whose work is particularly associated with the Cotswolds. Biography Edward Guy Dawber ...

and then with

James Glen Sivewright Gibson James Glen Sivewright Gibson (23 November 1861 – 27 March 1951) was a British architect active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Life and career Gibson was born in Arbroath the son of William Gibson and Elizabeth Sivewright ...

from 1903 to 1904. Hobson then returned to Ireland and became part of the architectural staff of Belfast Corporation in 1905. She was elected a licentiate of the RBA in 1911. While working as an assistant to the Royal Commission on Health and Housing, she travelled to Germany and Switzerland to study housing issues in those countries. She later worked on the Reconstruction Commission of the

Irish White Cross The Irish White Cross was established on 1 February 1921 as a mechanism for distributing funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. It was managed by the Quaker businessman, and later Irish Free State senator, James G. Dou ...

. Hobson retired in 1937. In 1948, she married William Forbes Patterson. The couple first lived in

Crawfordsburn Crawfordsburn () is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. The village, which is now effectively a commuter suburb, lies between Holywood and Bangor to the north of the A2 road, about 4 km west of Bangor town centre. Bounded to ...

but is known to have been living in London during the period from 1957 to 1965. She later returned to Crawfordsburn, where she died at the age of 97. Her brother John Bulmer Hobson was an Irish nationalist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobson, Florence Fulton 1881 births 1978 deaths Alumni of Belfast School of Art Irish women architects Irish Quakers People from Monasterevin Architects from County Kildare Architects from Belfast