Andrew Graham Henderson

Architect Andrew Graham (known as Graham) Henderson (1882–1963), was born in Auckland, New Zealand, but the family returned to Scotland in 1890–1. 1 He was educated at Irvine Royal Academy, and Allan Glen's School, Glasgow. In 1898, he was articled to the Glasgow practice of Macwhannel & Rogerson, where he remained until 1903. At the same time, he studied building construction at Glasgow Technical College, and, from 1899 to 1901, architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. 2 Following a short spell with William Baillie, Henderson joined Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh around April 1904. 3

Henderson was a talented draughtsman. As Mackintosh's assistant, he produced a perspective drawing for Auchinibert, which was exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and published in Academy Architecture under the firm's name in 1908. 4 Henderson travelled extensively, to France, Belgium, and in 1907, as 'a student recommended by the R.I.B.A.', he 'pursued various studies in Italy'. 5 He was an assistant, and later head, draughtsman at Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh between 1903 and 1916. Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh's handsome 1911 drawing for a new bandstand at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham may be his work. 6 He was also assistant to Professor Eugene Bourdon at the Glasgow School of Art, and, from 1910–14, acted as a visiting examiner of building construction students at Paisley Technical College. 7

In 1913, Henderson's competition design for the Demonstration School at Jordanhill won the commission for Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh, and in 1914, after Mackintosh's departure, he won the competition to redevelop Glasgow Cross. 8 Independently, he submitted a design for the Manchester Library and Art Gallery competition of 1911, with John R. Hacking, a former colleague at Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh. Although unsuccessful, Henderson's drawings were published in the Builder alongside the nine other shortlisted designs. 9 In 1913, he was placed second in the competition for Langside Library, Glasgow. 10

During the First World War, John Keppie continued to pay Henderson while he served with the 9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Bn, The Highland Light Infantry. As the result of injury, he lost the use of his right arm, but trained himself to write and draw with his left hand. 11 Henderson's skills were used in the post-war demilitarisation process. He worked for the Directorate of Lands from January 1919 until at least June 1919; he was also an Inspector of Works, acting as a 'war department valuer', using his knowledge of buildings to enable their return to peacetime use. 12

Henderson later wrote that his 'partnership with Mr Keppie nominally commenced Jan. 1916', when he was in the forces and the name of John Keppie & Henderson appears from that date in some directories. 13 He returned to the office, as a full partner, probably around the time of his marriage to Agnes G. Sclanders in June 1919. 14

The inter-war years were not busy professionally, but one of the best-known interventions by the practice was at Glasgow Cross, which was radically redesigned (1914; 1923–31) to allow better traffic flow. Henderson's planned concave facades were only partially executed, but the grander 'Mercat Building' (1928–31) at the Gallowgate junction on the east was decorated with an important sculptural programme by Alexander Proudfoot, Archibald Dawson and Benno Schotz. 15 Other notable projects under Henderson's control were the late 1920s Bank of Scotland in Sauchiehall Street, and Cloberhill School, both in Glasgow. The school won a Royal Institute of British Architects Bronze Medal for Scotland in 1938, for 'the best building erected by an architect in Scotland in the last five years'. Henderson hoped that architects would be encouraged 'that an award could be gained for a building ... not of national importance.' 16

In 1931, Henderson was elected a Fellow of the RIBA; Keppie was one of his proposers. 17 After Keppie's retirement on 30 June 1937, the partnership was dissolved, and Henderson and fellow partner Alexander Smellie, continued at 181 West Regent Street, under the practice name of 'John Keppie & Henderson'. Henderson served as President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects from 1932 until 1934. 18

During the Second World War, Henderson became a lieutenant colonel (quartering commandant), responsible for requisitioning buildings for military use in west and central Scotland. These included Jordanhill College where he had designed the demonstration school. The contacts he acquired during this wartime role doubtless stood him in good stead in obtaining public sector work thereafter. Subsequent commissions included industrial projects at Vale of Leven, Cumbernauld and Newhouse. 19 Henderson understood that the new National Health Service would lead to building work and brought in Joseph L. Gleave in 1949, who designed the first NHS acute hospital in the UK at Vale of Leven. This relationship ended in 1958, but Henderson ensured a prosperous future for the practice through the recruitment of the next generation of Tom Scott, Geoffrey Wimpenny and Dick De'Ath. 20

By the end of the Second World War Henderson was President of the Glasgow Art Club. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1943. In 1947 he became a member of the influential Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland, which included architects Ian G. Lindsay and Reginald Fairlie. 21 Official appointments continued, with the Presidency of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (1945–7), and seats on the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland (1948; re-appointed 1955) and the Scottish panel of the British Council. 22

Henderson attended the opening in 1949 of the Glasgow School of Art's Mackintosh Room along with Thomas Howarth, an early champion of Mackintosh. 23 After having been its vice-president in 1949, Henderson became the first practising architect from Scotland to be President of the RIBA, appointed in July 1950. In his ensuing public appearances, he welcomed the design showcase offered by the Festival of Britain (1951), and defended the primacy of architects over town-planners. 24 Henderson served the standard two-year presidential term, which was sometimes mistakenly reported in the press as 're-election' after his first year. Among his duties, he hosted a lunch for Royal Gold Medallist (1941) Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950, and toured Canada and the United States in 1952. 25

The University of Glasgow celebrated its 500th Anniversary in 1951, and Henderson designed the commemorative gates in University Avenue which were funded by alumni donations. Their five sections represented the preceding five centuries, and the central uprights ('meeting stiles') were shaped like the institution's ceremonial mace, 'the symbol of the university's authority'. A corresponding plaque by Henderson was placed on the University's former site in the High Street in 1955. 26 In 1954, he was Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Glasgow School of Architecture in its 50th anniversary year. He became a Royal Scottish Academician in1953, after having being an associate for a decade. 27

In 1958, the practice became Keppie, Henderson & Partners, but although he was still working, Henderson remained without the knighthood usually bestowed upon a past-president of the RIBA. This was rumoured to be due to differences over his extensions to Birkhall, at Balmoral, for the Queen Mother in 1955. 28 Henderson died at home in Glasgow on 21 November 1963. 29