Claude Paterson

• Born      July-Sept 1883  Bowdon, Cheshire
• Died       10 December 1950, The Warneford Oxford

Claude Paterson was a son of Alexander E Paterson, solicitor, of Dudley House Bowdon, one of the founders of the firm of Dendy and Paterson, of Cross Street, Manchester. He was articled to John Brooke between 1900 and 1904, and passed the qualifying examination being elected Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects on 6 March 1905, proposed by J W Beaumont, T Worthington and Paul Ogden.  After a time as a solo practitioner he joined J Theodore Halliday in partnership about 1912. Early in 1914 they received third premium in the competition for the Manchester Royal Exchange.

Claude Paterson enlisted for military service shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, and after serving a year in India, was granted a commission. As a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, he went to the front in August 1916 and was officially reported missing on 7 October 1916. He was later reported to have been wounded and captured by the German forces. Letters to his sister, published in the Manchester Guardian indicate that by July 1917 he had been transferred to the Officergefangenenlager, Schwarmatedt, Hanover [Manchester Guardian 10 July 1917 page 4].

Claude Patersons’s role in the practice after his enlistment in 1915 is difficult to establish. Competition entries in the two years 1915 to 1916 were submitted in the name of James Halliday or Messrs Halliday and Paterson with Mr C G Agate. For the next ten years the practice was run under the style of Halliday Paterson and Agate, suggesting that Agate became a partner about August 1916, the time Claude Paterson was sent to the front. However, Slater’s directory of 1919 still lists the partnership of Halliday and Paterson, C G Agate appearing separately. Although the practice under the name of Halliday Paterson and Agate continued until 1926, no supporting evidence has been found to confirm that Claude Patterson returned to Manchester on his release from captivity, or that he re-joined the practice. In 1926 a new partnership was formed between J Theodore Halliday, Charles Gustav Agate and Franklyn Leslie Halliday, the younger brother of James Theodore, under the style of Halliday and Agate.  No further information has been found concerning Claude Paterson after 1922.

Claude Paterson died suddenly on 10 December 1950 at The Warneford Oxford (a mental hospital). A funeral service was held at Manchester Crematorium on Thursday 14 December 1950.

Of Claude Paterson’s brothers, Willis Paterson joined their father’s law firm in Manchester, and continued to live at Dudley House, Bowdon. {obituary: Manchester Guardian 10 December 1949 page 5]. Sir Alexander Paterson (1884-1947) was HM Commissioner of Prisons and Director of Convict Prisons, 1922 until his retirement in 1947 when he received a knighthood. He died a few months later. {Obituary: The Times)

Address
1911    Claude Paterson ARIBA AMSA Northern Assurance Buildings, Albert Square (Slater)
1919    Claude Paterson, ARIBA,  FMSA 14, John Dalton Street
1919    Halliday and Paterson 14 John Dalton Street

Residence
1905    Dudley House, the Firs Bowdon
1915    India – military service
1916    France
1917    Germany – prisoner of war
1950    Oxford

Death Notice     Manchester Guardian 11 December 1950 page – deaths
Obituary     Architect and Building News 15 December 1950 page 637