Matthew Digby Wyatt

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (born July 28, 1820 in Rowde near Devizes , Great Britain , † May 21, 1877 at Cowbridge ) was a British architect and art historian .

Wyatt was born the youngest son of lawyer and lawyer magistrate Matthew Wyatt. After leaving school, he worked in the architecture office of his eldest brother, Thomas Henry Wyatt . At the age of 16, the Architectural Society awarded him a medal for an essay. In 1838 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, but went on Grand Tour before graduation in the years 1844–1846 . During his trip he made over 1000 drawings, which he published in a series of books from 1848 onwards. By held by Wyatt lecture on mosaics at the Royal Academy of Arts was Henry Cole aware of him, of him in 1849 at the Industrial Exhibition took in Paris. Wyatt's detailed report on the exhibition was widely recognized, which is why he was appointed secretary of the Great Exhibition in 1851 . Among other things, he was responsible for the execution of the work on the Crystal Palace . A close friendship developed from the collaboration with Owen Jones . For a report on the Crystal Palace, he was awarded the Telford Medal, the highest award of the Institution of Civil Engineers , in 1851 .

The following year, 1852, Wyatt was commissioned to build the decorative iron structures of London's Paddington Station , again collaborating with Owen Jones and Isambard Kingdom Brunel . Also in collaboration with Brunel, he designed the Bristol Temple Meads train station .

In 1855 Wyatt became a surveyor and architect for the East India Company , for which he built numerous buildings in Great Britain and India. After its decline due to the Indian uprising of 1857 , Wyatt served in the newly formed administration in the same function. Together with George Gilbert Scott, he designed the main building of the India Office in Whitehall, the courtyard of which is considered Wyatt's masterpiece.

From 1855 to 1859 Wyatt was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Institute of British Architects , which awarded him the Royal Gold Medal in 1866 . In 1869 he was awarded the knighthood of a Knight Bachelor .

Emaciated from years of activity, he retired to Dimlands Castle near Cowbridge, an estate that belonged to his wife's family. However, he did not recover, so that he died on May 21, 1877 at the age of 56. His tomb in Usk City Cemetery was designed by his older brother Thomas Henry.

Web links

• Wyatt's biography in the Oxford DNB
• Biography of the Dictionary of Art Historians
• Short biography of the Victorian Web