Bernard Aloysius Kaukas MBE FRIBA (30 July 1922 – 2 May 2014) was Chief Architect for British Railways (BR) from 1968 to 1977 and BR's Director of Environment from 1977 to 1982.

Biography

Kaukas was born in Hackney (London), on 30 July 1922 to Joseph Kaukas (1885–1964) and Ethel Margaret Morgan-Adlam (1894–1979). He was schooled at St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he spent a brief period as a firefighter in the

London Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

before joining the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and serving on HMS Douglas. After the war, he studied architecture at the Northern Polytechnic Institute in London, and worked briefly for two county council departments before going into private practice. In 1959 he moved to the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...

. In 1968 he succeeded

Frederick Francis Charles Curtis Frederick Francis Charles Curtis FRIBA (9 August 1903 – 16 June 1975) was the first chief architect for British Railways from 1948. Career Curtis was born on 9th August, 1903, at Frankfurt-on-Main. His father, Francis Curtis, was a lecture ...

as chief architect to the British Railways Board and in 1977 their Director of Environment until he retired in 1982. He was succeeded as Chief Architect to British Railways by Ray Moorcroft. During his time at British Rail he persuaded the company to invest £3m to save the roof of St Pancras railway station which was in danger of collapse. He was appointed MBE in 1984.

Works

*Church of the Holy Apostles, Pimlico 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaukas 20th-century English architects British railway architects British Rail people 1922 births 2014 deaths People educated at St Ignatius' College, Enfield Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects Members of the Order of the British Empire Royal Navy personnel of World War II