Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect with the Board of Public Works. Frank Craig, a son of Thomas Craig, a solicitor in Dublin, was born on 27 August 1880.(1)    He was articled to ROBERT JOHN STIRLING  ROBERT JOHN STIRLING from 1897 to 1901.  After acting as an assistant clerk of works and undertaking some private commissions, he entered the Board's employment on 25 April 1904 as an assistant temporary surveyor. (2)  In 1909, when he became a member of the RIAI, he was based in Limerick but by the following year he was back in Dublin. At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for active service and was posted to the Hampshire Regiment.(3) As the result of wounds received in the fighting, he lost a leg and was retired with the rank of Major. He returned to the Board of Works and, early in 1923, was promoted to the rank of assistant principal architect.(4) He died in 1943.(5) He was married and had at least one son.

Craig is described by his obituarist in the Journal of the RIAI as reserved: 'acquaintance with Major Craig ripened but slowly into friendship and it was only at this stage of intimacy that one appreciated why he was so affectionately regarded and held in such esteem by those with whom he made the closest contact'. He was an active member of the Dublin Arts Club but resigned from the committee in 1919 when it was proposed that honorary status for Service members resident in Dublin should cease.(6) He is said by Page Dickinson to have first suggested the idea that the proposed Dublin Municipal Gallery might take the form of a bridge over the Liffey, although it was Lutyens whom Hugh Lane invited to prepare drawings for the scheme.(7) A keen tennis player before the loss of his leg, he took up golf as a substitute recreation.

AAI:(8) member, 1897; hon. secretary, 1908; president, 1928-9.
RIAI: elected member, 7 June1909, having been proposed by RICHARD CAULFIELD ORPEN RICHARD CAULFIELD ORPEN , seconded by LUCIUS O'CALLAGHAN  LUCIUS O'CALLAGHAN and JAMES HENRY WEBB.  JAMES HENRY WEBB.
RSAI: elected associate member, 1913.(9)

Addresses:(10) Work: Limerick, 1909; Office of Public Works, Dublin, 1910 onwards.
Home: Novara, Bray, 1904; Kenmare, Orwell Park, Rathgar, 1905-15; 27 Merrion Street Upper, 1925; 45 Leeson Park, <=1927-1943.


See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from IAA, RIAI office archives (Acc. 93/136), membership forms 1878-1909 (extremely fragile), from the obituary of Craig in RIAI Year Book (1943 & 1944), 36-7,and from Craig's son David, Lord Craig of Radley, 1996. A photograph of him is in AAI Green Book (1929), 26.

(1) www.familysearch.org gives his mother's name as Eliza Brent Brownrigg.
(2) Jones, citing OPW records.
(3) 'List of Members of the A.A.I. serving with His Majesty's Forces' in AAI Green Book (1916).
(4) IB 65, 21 Apr 1923, 274.
(5) JRIAI (1943), 21; AAI Green Book (1946), 36.
(6) See Patricia Boylan, All Cultivated People: A History of the United Arts Club, Dublin (1988), 55,88,120,169; Craig appears in the two groups of club members drawn by Beatrice Elvery in 1910 which are reproduced in the book.
(7) P.L. Dickinson, The Dublin of Yesterday (1929), 37.
(8) AAI Green Books, lists of officers and members.
(9) JRSAI 43 (1913), 272.
(10) From AAI amd RIAI membership lists and Thom's directories.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for CRAIG, FRANCIS BROWNRIGG


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, ?, EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE
Date: 1935
Nature: -
Refs: IB 77, 2 Nov 1935, 1013

Building: CO. TIPPERARY, THURLES, LIBERTY SQUARE, NO. 58 (POST OFFICE)
Date: 1943
Nature: Adds. & alts.
Refs: IAA, PKS 1114

Author Title Date Details
Anon. 'The architect of today' 1928 IB 70, 17 Nov 1928, 959. (Leading article on F.B. Craig's inaugural address to AAI.)
Craig, Francis Brownrigg 'The function of the architect' 1928;1829 Inaugural address as president of IAA, 13 Oct 1928, published in IB 70, 10 Nov 1928, 942; AAI Green Book (1929), 27-39 and summarised in Irish Times, 31 Oct 1928.