| Architect Details |
James Henderson, architect 1859; George Bennett Mitchell & Son, architectural practice c.1935.
George Bennett Mitchell was born on 27 November 1865 and educated in Aberdeen and Newburgh. He was articled to Pirie & Clyne in 1881 and joined the practice of Jenkins & Marr as assistant on completing his apprenticeship. He remained with them until 1887 when he was appointed architect in the surveyors' department of Davidson & Garden, advocates (i.e. solicitors), Aberdeen. While there he carried out a great deal of work on the Dunecht estate for A C Pirie, both at the house and in the village, and was allowed to undertake a few small private commissions in his own name. During these early years he made several visits to France and Italy. On leaving Davidson & Garden, Mitchell opened his own practice at 148 Union Street; the exact date for this is uncertain as Mitchell himself gives dates varying from 1898 to 1 January 1903 and 1 January 1904 in different documents. His business mainly consisted of country house work and villas and cottages for the estates with which he had become acquainted through his work with Davidson & Garden. In 1913 Mitchell's son George Angus Mitchell (born on his father's thirty-first birthday and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School) entered the practice as an apprentice, and was one of the first two students to enrol at Aberdeen School of Architecture when it opened in 1913. His training was interrupted in 1915 when he commenced war service as a subaltern in the Highland Divisional Engineers; he served in Palestine and France with the 52nd Lowland Divisional Engineers, reaching the rank of Honorary Colonel, and returned to his father's office on his demobilisation in 1919, completing his diploma course the following year. He practised in association with his father from 1921. The practice moved from 148 Union Street to 1 West Craibstone Street in 1922 and George Angus became a partner in 1929, the firm name becoming George Bennett Mitchell & Son. George Angus Mitchell was elected FRIBA in late 1930, his proposers being Clement George, James Brown Nicol and George Watt. This may have prompted his father to seek RIBA membership, as he applied for Licentiateship immediately and was admitted at the beginning of 1931, his proposers being George, Nicol and William Liddle Duncan; and in May of the same year he too became a Fellow, with the support of the RIBA Council as a whole. By this time George Bennett had been awarded an MBE; he was also a Justice of the Peace, and had acted as District Civil Commissioner at the time of the General Strike in 1926. George Bennett Mitchell's main interest outside the office was the Boy's Brigade, of which he became Commander and President of the Aberdeen Battalion in 1906. His concerns for social welfare were further manifested in his work as Red Cross Transport Officer in Aberdeen during the First World War. He was also a devoted churchman, being a lifelong member of the West Church of St Andrew, of which he was an elder for over forty years. From at least 1914 he had a country residence at Cean-na-coil, Aboyne, one of the several houses he designed there, as well as his Aberdeen house at 4 Deemount Terrace and later at 18 Rubislaw Terrace. George Angus Mitchell continued to be active in military circles after the First World War, taking command of the 139th Field Park Company (TA) with the rank of Captain in 1924 and taking over 236 Field Company as a Major in 1928. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on the outbreak of the Second World War and became CRE 9th Divisional Engineers, CRE North Highland Area and CRE Lothian and Border Area. The elder Mitchell was taken ill in October 1940 whilst working as Divisional Food Officer for the North-East of Scotland, a position he had taken on in 1938 when hostilities were imminent. He underwent an operation involving the amputation of a leg, and resigned from the Food Office shortly afterwards. He died at his home on 22 March 1941. He was survived by his son and his daughter Meta, who like him took a leading part in youth welfare work in the area. His wife had predeceased him some years earlier. George Angus Mitchell inherited the practice, returning to it on his release from war service in June 1945 and continuing it under the existing name of George Bennett Mitchell & Son. The younger Mitchell was President of the Aberdeen branch of the RE Old Comrades Association for some years before 1958; President of the Aberdeen Rotary Club from 1947 to 1948; and President of the Aberdeen Chapter of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland in 1939, 1947 and 1949. Like his father, he was a lifelong member of the West Church of St Andrew, becoming a deacon in 1921 and an elder in 1939. In the later 1940s John Lamb was taken into partnership, followed in the later 1950s by Gordon Taylor and by Robert Alexander in 1971 and Alan Hamilton in 1976. George Angus Mitchell retired to Newburgh in 1962 and died there at his home, Thornhill, on 6 December 1964. He was survived by his wife Alice Jones and two married daughters.
James Henderson advertised for contractors from Kildrummy from 1856 to 1859. It seems very likely that he is the James Henderson who is described in his wife's will as 'sometime architect, afterwards farmer, Towie, Aberdeenshire'. His own will makes no mention of the fact that he had been an architect but describes him as a farmer who 'resided at New Morlich, parish of Towie'. He appears to have died on 7 May 1883 and his wife, Jean Hosie, died on 9 March 1892 in Lerwick, Shetland. (Towie is adjacent to the parishes of Kildrummy and Strathdon). Nothing further is yet known of his career as an architect.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)