Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, silversmith, sculptor and cartoonist, of Cork, London, South Africa and Singapore.  Denis Santry, son of Denis Santry, a carpenter and joiner in Cork, and his wife Ellen, was born in Cork on 14 May 1879.(1)  Originally apprenticed to a joiner (presumably his own father) he won an Arnott scholarship to the Cork Municipal School of Art in 1894 to 1896 and  was articled to JAMES FINBARRE MCMULLEN [2]  JAMES FINBARRE MCMULLEN [2] the following year.   From 1897 to 1898 he held a Lane scholarship at the Royal College of Art before returning to McMullen's office, where he worked from 1899 until 1901.  Ill health apparently drove him to emigrate to South Africa towards the end of 1901.  He remained abroad for the rest of his life, working as an architect in Cape Town and, from 1918, in Singapore.   He retired to England in 1934, hoping to devote himself to his hobbies of sculpture and silverwprork, but was obliged to return to South Africa on account of his health in 1940 and to resume his architectural career after the war for financial reasons.   He died in Durban on 14 April 1960.   He was a pioneer of animated cartoons in South Africa.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise referenced is from Early Architects of south Africa, http://www.sahra.org.za/architects_search_detailed.asp?a=4266&b=0 (last visited, Feb 2010).


(1) The date of Santry's birth and his parents' names are from www.familysearch.org;  his father's occupation is given in the 1911 census of Ireland, when he was living in Evergreen Street, Cork.