Frederick de Jersey Clere

Frederick de Jersey Clere (born January 7, 1856 in Walsden , West Yorkshire , England , † August 13, 1952 in Wellington ) was an architect in New Zealand and primarily active in the art of church building.

Frederick de Jersey Clere at the Wellington Technical College Jubilee, circa 1936

Life

Frederick de Jersey Clere was born on January 7, 1856, the second son of the married couple Henry Clere and Ellen Vaughan in Walsden , then part of Lancashire . His father, who later became the Vicar of St. Mary's Church in New Plymouth , New Zealand, was a pastor in the local Anglican Church at the time . Frederick attended St John's School in Lower Clapton , northeast London , and later began training as an architect at the age of 16 under Edmund Evan Scott of Brighton . In 1875 he became chief assistant to Robert Jewell Withers (1824-1894), a church builder from London.

In 1877 he emigrated to New Zealand with his parents and married his first wife Mary Goodbehere on April 18, 1883 in Feilding . Their marriage resulted in three daughters and two sons. In 1886 he moved with his family to Wellington , from where he shaped his creative life. After his first wife died in April 1904, he remarried in October of the following year. With Elizabeth Johnston Ingles , who died in 1920, he had two other daughters. Clere himself died in Wellington on August 13, 1952, at the age of 96 .

Act

Frederick de Jersey Clere initially worked in Feilding from 1879 to 1883 and then in Wanganui from 1883 to 1886 . Initially, he built houses with a simple design, but he was already using innovative techniques to minimize damage from earthquakes and fire. Later, around the turn of the century, he switched to Elizabethan architectural style, which he used in buildings in the Rangitikei District .

St Mary of the Angels

In 1883 he became the architect of the Diocese of the Anglican Church in Wellington . For them he was responsible for the construction of over 100 churches, which he built mainly in wood and mainly in rural districts until 1904, but later switched to brick construction or reinforced concrete when building churches in cities, as he u. a. at St Matthew's in Hastings , St Mary of the Angels in Wellington and St Andrew's in New Plymouth .

About 85 of its churches remain, as well as some structures in Wellington , including the AMP Building on Customhouse Quay and two Harbor Board buildings on Queen's Wharf , the Wellington Harbor Board Wharf Office Building and the Wellington Harbor Board Head Office and Bond Store . Almost all of his churches were characterized in an economical and unobtrusive way by the contemporary neo-Gothic style, to be found in the pointed arches, in the roof beam constructions and in the shapes of the towers and bell towers.

Clere was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1882 and a Fellow in 1886, was its secretary for New Zealand and left in 1948 due to his old age of 92 years. He was a founding member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and President of the Wellington branch of the Association of Architects in New Zealand. He has published a number of articles on art and architecture in various specialist journals.

In 1935 he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal for his services .

literature

• Susan Maclean : Architect of the Angels - The Churches of Frederick De Jersey Clere . Steele Roberts , Wellington 2002, ISBN 1-877228-68-0 (English).

Web links

• Susan Maclean : Clere, Frederick de Jersey . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , September 1, 2010, accessed August 23, 2012 . 
• Basic Biographical Details - Frederick de Jersey Clere . Dictionary of Scottish Architects,accessed August 9, 2010. 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Basic Biographical Details - Robert Jewell Withers . Dictionary of Scottish Architects , accessed August 9, 2010 .  
2. ^ ^{A b} Una Platts : Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook . Avon Fine prints Ltd. , Christchurch 1980 (English).