Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Estate engineer and architect for the Pembroke Estates in Dublin from 1902 or earlier until his death in 1945 or 1946. Henry Crawfurth Smith was born on 12 March 1868 and studied at London University. He served his engineering pupilage with Walter Thomas, Borough Surveyor of Dorchester, between 1885 and 1888 and stayed on for a short time with him as his assistant at Dorchester and then at Dover. A series of temporary engineering and architectural posts in the London area followed, interrupted by a spell with the Paraguay Central Railway between August 1889 and September 1891. In January 1894 he became waterworks engineer at Aldrington, near Brighton, a post which he still held when he applied for associate membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers in October 1895. He had been appointed estate engineer and architect for the Pembroke Estates in or by 1901(1) and remained in the post for the rest of his life, apart from a break during the First World War, when he served in the Royal Engineers.(2) He died in 1945 or 1946.(3)  He had married his wife, Clarissa Maud, in England circa 1895 and had a son and a daughter, both born before he moved to Dublin.(4)

AA: elected member, 1891.(5)
AAI: elected member, 1903; gives lecture on 'Heraldry', 3 February 1903 and on 'Evolution of church planning', 17 November 1903;(6) gives lecture on gardens, 8 December 1908.(7)
Inst.CE: elected associate member, 14 January 1896.(8)
RIBA: licentiate by 1923.(9)

Addresses: Work: Pembroke Estate Office, 1 Wilton Place, Dublin, 1903-1945.
Home: 2 Westbourne Villas, West Brighton, 1895; 2 Clyde Terrace, St John's Road, Sydney Parade, Dublin, 1907; 25 Ailesbury Park, 1911; Chipton, Ailesbury Park, Dublin, 1915; 37 Raglan Road, 1945.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Smiths candidate's circular for admission as an associate member of Inst.CE, 26 Oct 1895, in Inst.CE archives (courtesy of Susannah Roberts), Thom's directories and lists of members in AAI Green Books.  He appears oas the first figure on the left in a photograph taken at the opening of the last of the Pembroke Cottages on 13 Apr 1932 (Irish Times, 14 Apr 1932).


(1) Described as such in the Irish census of 1901, when he was staying at St John's, Co. Roscommon..
(2) War Roll in AAI Green Book (1917), War Roll.
(3) AAI Green Book (1947), 29.
(4) 1911 Census, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000113259/ (last visited Feb 2009).
(5) Architectural Association Year Book & Diary 1930, 124.
(6) AAI Green Book (1904), 7,38.
(7) IB 50, 3 Oct 1908, 608.
(8) Min.Proc.Inst.CE 124 (1895-1896, Pt. II), 2.
(9) Who's Who in Architecture (1923), 229.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for SMITH, HENRY VAUGHAN CRAWFURTH


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, BAGGOT LANE, PEMBROKE GARDENS
Date: 1919;1931-32
Nature: Development 'garden village' of of 1- and 2-storey cottages for working-class tenants, to be managed by Alexandra Guild.   Initially for 15th Earl of Pembroke, intended by him as memorial to 14th Earl of Pembroke, and later for Pembroke Irish Charities Fund.   Contractor: G. & T. Crampton.  Last cottage opened by Lord Mayor, 13 Apr 1932.
Refs: Irish Times, 14 Apr 1932 (illus.);  Ruth McManus, Crampton Built (Dublin: G. & T. Crampton, 2008), 50-51(illus.)