Architect, of Dublin. Harry Allberry was born in Liverpool on 8 December 1872, a son of Richard Allberry, mercantile clerk, and his wife Elizabeth, née Downes. His father left home when he was very young, with the result that Harry was brought up by his grandparents James and Ellen Allberry and his two maiden aunts in Islington, London, where he attended the Brewers' School. He served his articles in the office of Banister Fletcher & Sons, and studied at King's College School of Architecture, where he passed with distinction and was awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in architecture and building construction. Allberry came to Ireland in 1896 to work for WILLIAM HAGUE WILLIAM HAGUE . He then became managing assistant to WILLIAM MANSFIELD MITCHELL WILLIAM MANSFIELD MITCHELL and subsequently worked for A. Guinness and Co. In 1901 he entered the Board of Works as an assistant surveyor; serving first in the midland counties, in the Cork district in 1903-4, and in the Dublin district from 1904 until 1909, when he was promoted to First Class surveyor. In 1913 he became assistant Principal surveyor at the Board's Dublin headquarters, with duties including the charge of Phoenix Park and of Belfast City. During the First World War, in 1917, he was seconded to the Ministry of Munitions in London. He was appointed deputy principal architect to the Board in 1921. After his retirement in 1935, he went into private practice and was briefly in partnership with RAYMOND JAMES KAVANAGH RAYMOND JAMES KAVANAGH , from 1938-1940.
Allberry was a regular contributor to the Irish Builder from about 1900 until his death, most of his contibutions before his retirement from the Office of Public Works being anonymous. He was editor from 1935 until 1941, continuing to write under the names of 'Oculus' and 'Questant'. He was architectural editor from 1950 until his death..
Allberry died on 23 October 1952. Short in stature, he is described as prompt, punctual, cheerful, youthful in appearance, and interested in people. He never lost his London accent. 'This accent of his', wrote JOHN O'GORMAN JOHN O'GORMAN in the Irish Builder on Allberry's death, 'was a constant reminder that, wherever he happened to be, there was also a corner of a foreign land that was forever England, a corner filled with all the English virtues, and perhaps a few of the English imperfections.' While he was working in Cork he had married Elizabeth Roche, daughter of Edward James Roche, proprietor of Roche's Hotel, Glengarriff, Co. Cork, on 12 October 1907. She survived him, as did his son and two daughters. The son, Edward Cecil Allberry (1909-1984), became a distinguished physicist in England; one of their daughters, Hilda, became secretary of the Ireland-USSR Society.
AAI: founder member and committee member of resuscitated association, 1896; hon. sec. of building construction class, 1898; hon. sec. 1899-1900, 1912-14; joint vice-president, 1903-4; president, 1905-6; provided annual award for measured drawings known as Downes Bronze Medal, to mark his year of office as president, 1905; president again 1914-15.
RIAI: elected member, 1898; fellow, 1913 or 14;; on council 1909-1950; hon. sec. 1919-21; vice-president 1922, 1933-4; president 1935-7; 1st Hon. Sec. of Board of Architectural Education, 1922; active member of various committees including joint committee with RSUA; resigned 1942.
RIBA: associate, 1901; active in organization of RIBA conferences in Dublin in 1931 and 1939.
Institution of Professional Civil Servants: first president.
Addresses: Work: 14 Molesworth St, 1938.
Home: 10 Leinster Sq. Rathmines, 1898-1904; 5 Villiers Rd, Rathgar, 1915; 3 Neville Rd, Rathgar, <=1933-1941; 24 Whitebeam Ave, Clonskeagh, 1942->=1949.
See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
References
All information inthis entry not otherwise accounted for is from the biographies of Allberry in Dictionary of Irish Biography; AAI Green Book (1914-15), 9-12; JRIAI (1935), 11-12 (by R.M. Butler); IB 76, 15 Dec 1934, 1065, and from the obituaries in RIBAJ 60 (1952-3), 70; IB 94, 8 Nov 1952, 1047-8 (by John O'Gorman, repr. in RIAI Year Book (1953, 18-20). Photographs of Allberry appear in AAI Green Book (1914-15), 8; IB 56, 7 Nov 1914, 613; 74, 27 Feb 1932, 200; 76, 15 Dec 1934, 1065; 77, 12 Jan 1935, 10; 94, 8 Nov 1952, 1047; Architect & Building News 126, 19 Jun 1931, 379; Weekly Irish Times, 25 Jul 1931 (group photograph at unveiling of memorial to Dr Goerge Coffey); JRIAI (1935), frontispiece, and 'Architecture Yesterday and Today', supplement to Irish Times, 21 Jun 1939, 28.
IB 43, 30 Jan 1901, 606.
IB 44, 15 Jan 1903, 1558.
Board of Works Records.
IB 55, 10 May 1913, 301.
IB 59, 28 Apr 1917, 207.
IB 63, 5 Nov 1921, 726.
IB 77, 9 Feb 1935, 90, 9 Mar 1935, 174.
IB 80, 22 Jan 1938, 49.
IB 77, 12 Jan 1935, 10.
For a discussion of Allberry's contributions to IB, see Rothery, 103-108.
IB 50, 4 Apr 1908, 198.
According to a notice of his death in IB 50, 4 Apr 1908, 198, Edward James Roche had practised as an architect for many years in England 'where he was associated with several buildings of considerable importance'.
The son, Edward Cecil Allberry (1909-1984), who won a gold medal and Moderatorship in Experimental Science at TCD and a research scholarship at Cambridge(IB 74, 22 Oct 1932, 933), became a distinguished physicist in England.
IB 40, 15 May 1898, 74.
See note 1 above.
Irish Times, 22 Apr 1903.
IB 47, 4 Nov 1905, 765; AAI Green Book (1906), 51; IB 49, 20 Apr 1907, 294.
IB 47, 25 Mar 1905, 185.
IB 56, 7 Nov 1914, 613.
JRIAI (1914), 7.
JRIAI (1934), 7.
IB 76, 29 Dec 1934, 1114, 1120; 77, 20 Apr 1935, 306;
IB 79, 6 Mar 1937, 207.
RIAI Year Book (1943 & 1944), 10.
IB 73, 4 Jul 1931, 600 (portrait photo).
From Thom's Directories and RIAI and AAI membership lists.