Edward Davies (architect)

Edward Davies F.S.A.I.A. (12 April 1852 – 2 April 1927) was an architect and arts administrator in South Australia.

History

Davies was born in

Melbourne with his parents when quite young. His father Edward was a tanner, and immediately started a tanning business at Richmond on the banks of the Yarra. He was to follow in his father's business, but was persuaded by Joseph Lambeth

to study drawing.

He served a five-year apprenticeship with

Currie Street

. In September 1887 he took Hedley Dunn as partner in Flinders Street, partnership dissolved 1888.^[1] In 1906 he took his student C. W. Rutt into partnership as Edward Davies & Rutt.^[2] He was for six years president of the South Australian Association of Architects.

He was a keen and accomplished artist in oils and watercolor, and was a member of the short-lived

South Australian School of Arts. One of his landscapes is held by the Art Gallery of South Australia. Two particular friends were noted artists – James Ashton, with whom he spent a painting holiday every year, and Paris Nesbit, who died just a few days before him.^[3]

He was a founder in 1912 of the Dual Club of Adelaide, and a contributor to its title (E Davies, C. A. Uhrlab, J. Ashton, and H. H. Ling. The aim of the club was to promote both Art and Science, and was still going strong when Davies, the last of the four, died.

He was hon. curator of the Adelaide Gallery from 1909 to 1915, and chairman of the Board of Management, Public Art Gallery and Museum of South Australia.[4]

Family

He married Rhoda Catherine Sexton (11 October 1849 – 5 October 1902) on 11 October 1876. Their children included:

Edith Rhoda Davies (24 November 1877 – ) married Albert Victor Hannah
Mabel Davies (29 June 1879 – 12 September 1968), adopted daughter of Charles H. F. Schild, married Frederick Trevenen-Pitt on 23 April 1907, lived at Yankalilla
Frances Maude Davies (28 January 1881 – 7 May 1971) married architect Louis Laybourne Smith on 9 April 1903, lived at Millswood.
Clarence Edward Davies (ca.1882 – 2 June 1943), architect, married Amelia "Millie" Opie on 13 February 1917
Ernest Llewellyn Davies (1884 – 3 February 1955) lived in
Auckland, New Zealand
Percy Hamilton Davies (1 August 1886 – ) moved to Gold Coast, Africa
Stewart Lancelot Davies (27 May 1888 – ) moved to Gold Coast, Africa
Henry "Harry" Durham Davies (7 October 1889 – 3 January 1966) lived in
Port Lincoln, fought in World War I, awarded DCM
, married Eliza Catherine Walker on 3 January 1926.

Olive Davies (26 July 1891 – 9 June 1987) married Leonard Martin on 19 November 1913, lived at Broadway, Glenelg

He married again, on 23 December 1903 to Ada Egan (26 February 1862 – 22 September 1924). They had no children together.

References

^ Alison McDougall (1970). "Architects of South Australia: Hedley Allen Dunn". University of South Australia. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
The Register
. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 4 April 1927. p. 9. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

^ "Artist and Architect". The News. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 4 April 1927. p. 2 Edition: Home. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

^ McCulloch, Alan Encyclopedia of Australian Art Hutchinson of London, 1968. McCulloch alone calls him "H. Edward Davies" and gives his year of birth as 1853.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Davies_(architect)&oldid=1210425340"

[1] Alison McDougall (1970). "Architects of South Australia: Hedley Allen Dunn". University of South Australia. Retrieved 12 April 2016.

[2] The Register
. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 4 April 1927. p. 9. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[3] "Artist and Architect". The News. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 4 April 1927. p. 2 Edition: Home. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[4] McCulloch, Alan Encyclopedia of Australian Art Hutchinson of London, 1968. McCulloch alone calls him "H. Edward Davies" and gives his year of birth as 1853.

[1]

[2]

[3]