Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon CROMBIE, David Alexander Born: 1858 11 06 Died: 1938 03 27 Architect LRIBA 1911 Born in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, son of Robert Crombie and Agnes Thomson (www.familysearch.org). Was a pupil of FT Pilkington's in Edinburgh, for five years circa 1866 to 1871. He also attended classes at Heriot Watt, Edinburgh, given by Sir James Russell where Russell lectured on Hygiene and other subjects (it is not certain to which profession Russell belonged). Crombie appears to have remained with Pilkington as assistant, finally commencing practice on his own account in 1885. In 1889 he was based at 34 St Andrew Square, where Frank Worthington Simon also had an office at that date (DSA entry). In the early C20 he left for South Africa where he became a draughtsman in the architectural department of the PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT in Pretoria. He was a member of the Association of Transvaal Architects by 1915. During the period 1909 to 1911, while with the department, he worked on the Pretoria Post Office designs, the Pretoria Station Building and the Union Buildings. He was elected LRIBA on 20 March 1911, his proposers being James McLellan Fairley, Henry Francis Kerr and John Watson. There is also a listing of this practitioner on the Dictionary of Scottish Architects. (LRIBA nom papers (1911) 1079; UTD 1915) Crombie died in Cape Town. His death certificate gives his home address as the Gardens Residential Hotel, Orange St, and his profession as Retired civil servant, Public Works Dept. He was not married. His grave is in the Woltemade Cemetery, Maitland. (www.familysearch.org) All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.