Captain William Charles Braxton Sinclair FRIBA (1883 – 29 November 1962) was a British architect who worked in the United Kingdom and in Burma, where he was a captain 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 ...

. He was also a local historian.

Army service

Sinclair was born in Highbury, Middlesex, England, to Charles John Sinclair, an accountant. He joined

The Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

and was promoted to

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in 1907 in the 3rd Battalion and lieutenant in the 6th Battalion in 1910. As lieutenant, he served with the regiment in the First World War. In the Second World War he served with the Royal Engineers, initially as a lieutenant and later as a captain. Three photographs associated with his war service are held at the National Army Museum.

Works

First Church of Christ Scientist Richmond - geograph

His works include: *''Silver Birches'', a country house in

Purley, Surrey Purley is an area of the London Borough of Croydon in London, England, south of Charing Cross, with a history going back at least 800 years. It was originally granted as an estate from holdings at Sanderstead and until as a district of Surrey ...

(1920s) * 8 Turner Close, Hampstead Garden Suburb (1920–1923), which was listed Grade II in 1970. Its specification and plans are held at the London Metropolitan Archives. * First Church of Christ, Scientist, Southport, Lancashire, 1924–1933, ''now demolished'' * First

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...

, Bromley (1928–1933) at 54B Widmore Road, Bromley, London, which is Grade II listed. The

Bromley Civic Society Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

describes it as "an amazing fusion of classicism and Art Deco based on the design of a Roman tomb which accounts for the addition of a Mediterranean cypress tree as part of the integral landscaping. Special features are the classical pilasters in varying thicknesses of brick, repeated in the window tracery and the design of the carved wooden doors. Small hand-made bricks are used throughout." Historic England describes it as being "in an inventive Neo-Classical style with brickwork and doors reminiscent of Art-Deco cinemas". *Kay & Co's Georgian-style offices (1938) in The Tything, Worcester * The

Tudor-style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

gatehouse (1939) at the entrance to Dunsborough Park in Ripley, Surrey, commissioned by Sir Oliver Simmonds MP *

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Richmond First Church of Christ, Scientist, Richmond, is a church on Sheen Road, Richmond, London. It is a branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1879. Architecture It was built between 1939 and 1953; the ar ...

(1939–1953) at Sheen Road, Richmond, London * Huddersfield House (1958–59) at 200

Strand, London Strand (or the Strand) is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4 ...

WC2, the London offices of the then Huddersfield Building Society; the society later merged with other building societies to become the

Yorkshire Building Society Yorkshire Building Society is the third largest building society in the UK, with its headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the Building Societies Association. The society also owns the Chelsea Building Society a ...

and the building is now known as Yorkshire House. In 1913, Sinclair restored the tower at Holy Cross Church in Greenford, north-west London. In 1950, he extended the neo-Georgian flats that had been built in 1937 in Chesterfield Gardens in Greenwich. His design of a sophisticated

air raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

for flats at

Queen's Gate Queen's Gate is a street in South Kensington, London, England. It runs south from Kensington Gardens' Queen's Gate (the edge of which gardens are here followed by Kensington Road) to Old Brompton Road, intersecting Cromwell Road. The street is ...

, in South Kensington, London, was published in '' The Builder'' in October 1938.

Publications

* "Great Greenford, Middlesex: The Ancient Parish and the Unique Church", 12pp., published by the author, December 1912. *
The monasteries of Bagan
in '' Journal of the Burma Research Society'', vol.10, 1920 * "Prehistoric Blackheath" in ''Transactions of the Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society'', issue 4 (4), p. 164. T Green & Lewis, 1948–49 * "The Black Heath" in ''The Journal of the London Society'', issue 328, pp. 30–41, 1955 While briefly stationed in York during the Second World War, Sinclair, who was a Georgian Group member, wrote notes which, revised by the Society's architects, became the first publication of the York Georgian Society, ''Some Hints on the Maintenance and Repair of 17th and 18th Century Premises'' (1945).

Legacy

Sinclair bequeathed, to the Victoria and Albert Museum, four Burmese pictorial textile hangings known as kalagas. The museum also holds three watercolours by Sinclair, two showing Burmese landscapes and one of a Burmese pagoda. After his death Mrs Mary Simpson donated on his behalf, to the Victoria and Albert Museum, an 18th- or 19th-century wooden and

lacquered Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

sculpted figure of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, W Braxton 1883 births 1962 deaths People from Highbury 20th-century English architects 20th-century English historians English architectural historians Local historians of England English orientalists Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects Historical preservationists Royal Engineers officers Date of birth missing