Wednesday, 30 October 2013
304 Sir William Tite
Constituency : Bath 1855-73
William was born in London, the son of a Russian merchant. His chosen profession was architecture and he started out articled to David Laing. His greatest architectural achievement was The Royal Exchange in 1844 where his design won a competition but he was mainly known as a railway architect including Carlisle station. He also designed churches and cemeteries. He also had interests in banking. He eventually became President of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861 although he had largely retired from active architecture after a fee dispute with the Caledonian Railway in the early fifties . He first contested Barnstaple in 1854.
William sided with Palmerston against Gilbert Scott's Gothic plans for a new Foreign Office building. In 1864 he was appointed to assist in the construction of the Thames embankment. He was knighted in 1869.
William was a keen bibliophile and collector of antiques.
He died in 1873 aged 75. A prize , the William Tite Scholarship, was instigated to reward outstanding first year students in anatomy and physiology at St Thomas Hospital where he was a governor and is still preserved by King's College London.
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