BRAND, Walter

1872 - 1959

Walter Brand was born at Ipswich on 28 December 1872, son of Edward Brand (1838-29 January 1904), a draper, and his wife Harriet Pumfrett (1839-14 March 1909), second daughter of Stephen Pumfrett of Hull, who married at Zion Chapel, Cambridge on 3 March 1866 when they came to Ipswich. In 1881, Walter was living at Friendly House, Tacket Street, Ipswich with his parents, 42-year-old Edward, who was born Newton, Cambridgeshire and 41-year-old Harriet, who was born Huntingdon, and his two siblings. Walter studied at Ipswich School of Art, Heatherley School of Fine Art and at Bishop’s Stortford College, a non-conformist boarding school, and commenced work in his father’s drapery business. Articled to architect Brightwen Binyon and in 1889 became his assistant and in 1891, an 18-year-old architect's pupil, living at 'Homesdale', Crescent Road, Ipswich with his parents and siblings, Edward Pumfrett (1868-2 December 1894), Ada Mary 16, and William Stanley 12. Walter qualified as an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in March 1896 and married at Ipswich in 1897, Mary Ellen Fisk (5 May 1868-1954). A member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1895-1898 and exhibited from Sunny Bank, Warrington Road, Ipswich several pictures and architectural works including in 1889, two watercolours 'Mount Orgeuil Castle, Jersey' and 'From our Cot to the Next' and an architectural 'A Screen in Drinkstone Church', 'Long Melford Church', 'A Bay of Arcading-North Transept', 'Sketch of Caps, Lincoln Church and three 'Designs for a Doctor's House', in 1896 a watercolour 'Snapshots with a Brush in Norway' and in 1897 'Designs for a Higher Grade School. In 1897, having set himself up in practice in Ipswich and, in association with John Shewell Corder, won first prize for their work on the designs for the Higher-Grade School, Ipswich. His Suffolk work included houses in Ipswich and Felixstowe and in 1901, he and his wife were living with his parents at ‘Sunnybank’ Warrington Road, Ipswich. After being successful in a competition for designs for a wholesale market at Leicester, which opened in 1892, he and his wife moved to 33 Bowling Green Lane, Leicester 1903-1909. In 1911, he was living at ‘The Cottage’ Desford, Leicester, with two surviving of his four children, both born in Leicestershire, when his wife was a patient at the Homeopathic Hospital at 38 Princes Road, Leicester, and in 1921 they were living at 170 Upper New Walk, Leicester. A black & white artist he also exhibited at Royal Birmingham Society of Artists from Leicester in 1924, also exhibiting at Royal Institute of British Architects and Leicester Society of Artists. He was President of the Leicestershire and Rutland Society of Architects 1921-1931 and Honorary Treasurer of the Leicester Society of Artists for 32 years and awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1930. In 1939, a chartered architect, living at 170 Upper New Walk, Leicester with his wife Mary. He retired in 1953 and Walter Brand died at 170 Upper New Walk, Leicester on 27 June 1959, aged 86. His papers from 1898 are at Leicester Record Office (5D60)

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Works by This Artist