Reginald Theodore Blomfield RA (1856 - 1942)

Born 20 Dec 1856 in Bow, Devon, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Anne Frances May (Burra) Blomfield — married 13 Mar 1886 in Playden, Sussex, England, United Kingdom

Died 27 Dec 1942 at age 86 in Hampstead, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Shirley Blomfield [send private message], Gail James [send private message], and K Anonymous [send private message]

Biography

Reginald Blomfield RA is Notable.

Author and family historian, Sir Reginald Blomfield ^[1][2]was born on the 20th of December,1856^[3]the son of parents Reverend George Blomfield Vicar of Bow in Devonshire thrn Rector and Dean of Aldington in Kent and [Blomfield-177|Isabella Blomfield]] at Bow Rectory in Devon. This is where his father, the Reverend George Blomfield (d. 1900) was Rector. His mother Isabella Blomfield was the first cousin of his father and the second daughter of the Rt. Reverend Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London. Sir Reginald was bought up in Kent where his father was Rector of Dartford in 1857 and then of Aldington in 1868.

Reginald married Anne Frances Mary Burra on 14 February 1885 in Playden.^[4]

Children of the Marriage

1. Isabella Frances Blomfield (1887-1942)
2. Austin Blomfield (1892-1968)
3. Henry George Blomfield (1892-1966)

Schooling, Education, Awards, Recognition

1. Highgate School in North London (he later designed the Grade 2 Listed War memorial at that school)
2. Haileybury School in Hertfordshire
3. Exeter College, Oxford (He took his first-cass degree in classics)HIs wish here was to be an Artist but his family could not sustain this direction with his career.
4. Turtoring around the Continent for 1 year
5. 1881-1884 Became an articled pupil in his maternal Uncle Sir Arthur Blomfields Architectural practice in London
6. 1881 Enrolled also in the Royal Academy Schools
7. 1881 Made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects
8. 1882 Won Junior Prize at the Royal Academy
9. 1883 Won Senior Prize at the Royal Academy - he designed a town house in the Queen Anne Revival style (something he later was ashamed of)
10. 1884 Completes his training at his uncle's office.
11. 1884 Spent some months (4) travelling around France and Spain
12. 1885 Establishes his own practice at 17 Southampton St, off the Strand in London.
13. 1886 Rye, Sussex; a place where he had designed a number of houses including his own on the very informal Point Hill. That same year he also co-designed a home with T. Cobden Sanderson which was to become a home he was to own until his death, at '51 Frognal' .
14. 1905 Made an Associate of the Royal Academy
15. 1906 Made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
16. 1907-1911 Professor of Architecture Royal Academy
17. 1912-1914 President of the RIBA
18. 1913 Awarded the Royal Gold medal
19. 1914 Elected to the Royal Academy 'bearing office'
20. 1919 Awarded a Knighthood
21. 1933 Elected into the National Academy of Design as Honorary Corresponding Member
22. He also Founded the Art Workers Guild where he became Honorary Secretary.

Buildings Rneowned for their Design

As per R.A. Fellows, Sir Reginald Blomfield: an Edwardian architect, 1985^[5] with additions from The Buildings of England and other sources cited within Wikipedia online ^[6]

1. Goldsmiths College London 1907
2. Lincoln Public Library 1910
3. Westgate Water Tower1910
4. Regent Street, London 1916-1926
5. RAF Memorial London 1922-1927
6. The Headrow Leeds 1924-1937
7. The Menin Gate, Ypres Belgium 1922-1927
8. Lambeth Bridge London 1925-1932
9. The Usher Art Galery Lincoln 1927

and so on.

He was a Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London^[7] Members of the Royal Academy of Arts of London, England are known as Royal Academicians. The post-nominal letters RA are used after the Academician's name. Founded in 1768, membership is limited to eighty full members, who may be painters, printmakers, sculptors, or architects, who are professionally active in Britain.

Architect, Garden Designer, Prolific Author

1. 1892, The Formal Garden in England, illustrated by Inigo Thomas
2. 1893 The English Tradition
3. 1897 A History of Renaissance Architecture
4. 1897 The Mistress Art
5. 1897 A history of Renaissance architecture in England
6. 1905 Studies in Architecture
7. 1908 The Mistress Art
8. 1912 Architectural Drawing and Draughtsmen
9. 1921 A history of French architecture
10. 1925 The Touchstone of Architecture
11. 1925 Six Architects
12. 1932 Memoirs of an Architect
13. 1934 Modernismus
14. 1940 A Study of London

In 1918 although Sir Reginald did not go to War as a large proportion of his family members and friends did he was to design and memorialise them with the design of The Cross of Sacrifice located in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery in Belgium for Commonwealth military personnel who died during the First World War. It was unveiledin 1920.^[8]. he designed the Cross in 1918 for the IMperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission).

In 1920 he delivered the British Academy's Aspects of Art Lecture, which was published in the Proceedings of the British Academy. A further collection of autobiographical material, 1932–42, continuing his memoirs, remains unpublished and is in the possession of his descendants.

Death and Burial

Sir Reginald is buried in the churchyard of St. James, Playden, East Sussex England. He died at age 86 on the 27th of December 1942 and is buried in the family plot of the churchyard of St James, Playden East Susses which is only half a mile from his country home of Point Hill, Rye.

Research Notes

Changed birth place from in Aldingham, Kent, England, United Kingdom to current differing from L.C. Sier ^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ The Bloomfields of Dedham and Colchester (accessed 2016)
2. ↑ A Suffolk Family by Sir Reginald Blomfield (accessed 2017)
3. ↑ Reginald Blomfield (accessed 2022)
4. ↑ Marriage: "East Sussex, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936" East Sussex Record Office; Brighton, England; Sussex Parish Registers; Reference: PAR 445/1/4/1Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 62126 #1469443 (accessed 30 April 2023)Reginald Theodore Blomfield marriage to Anne Frances Mary Burra on 14 Feb 1885 in Playden.
5. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Sir-Reginald-Blomfield-Perspective-Architecture/dp/0302005900
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Blomfield
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Royal_Academicians
8. ↑ "Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia"; Various Contributors (accesssed 24 Apr 2023)
9. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Blomfield

Acknowledgements