William Henry Powell

• Birth date            1847 at Lewes
• Married                23 April 1872 to Clara Welch at St Paul’s Church, Herne Hill
• Divorce               December 1889
• Death date          7 June 1900 at Pietermaritzburg, Natal
• Burial                Anglican Section of the cemetery in Chief Albert Luthuli Street, Pietermaritzburg, (no headstone or any marker)

William Henry Powell was born in 1847 in Lewes, Sussex, the son of Revd. William Powell (b. 1810) and Matilda Spencer (nee Blaine). He was articled to Joseph Gardner of Folkestone for three years from 1861, and remained a further year as assistant. He next moved to London where he entered the office of Sydney Smirked (1799-1877) and remained for one or several years (sources vary).  During this period, he travelled in France before commencing independent practice in 1872, in London. Although it is widely suggested that William Henry Powell was in partnership with John Ladds, this appears erroneous; both men worked from separate addresses throughout the period of their supposed partnership and each took on individual commissions. Rather, it would seem that from about 1872 Powell worked in association with John Ladds on specific competition entries including the Corn Exchange, Bedford, Elementary School, Sharnbrook, St John’s Church, Blackpool, Chorley Town Hall and schools at Bassingbourn and Kneesworth. 

Powell married Clara Welch (1852 - 1920), daughter of J.D. Welch of Herne Hill on 23 April 1873 at St Paul's Church, Herne Hill, and they had five sons:  William Henry Powell (b. 1874)   Sydney Powell (1877-1952), John Stewart Powell (1885- 1916), Owen Welch Powell (b. 1886) and Norman Spencer Powell born on 25 June 1893 in Natal, South Africa.

On 15 December 1873, the year of his marriage, he was elected Associate of the RIBA proposed by S Smirke, C J Phipps, and G Judge. According to a note in his ARIBA nomination papers, Smirke said he had found Powell’s conduct “had been that of a gentleman.” He was elected Fellow of the RIBA on 7 November 1887, proposed by C J Phipps, F W Porter, and T Harris.

In 1889 he was cited in a divorce case by Ralph Thomas, a solicitor in practice in Chancery Lane on the grounds of his wife's adultery with Powell which received wide publicity. For William Henry Powell the result of the divorce case was professional ruin. He was sufficiently well-known, and although he did not specialise, he did a great deal of domestic architecture. He hung on briefly but seeing that he had no hope of living the scandal down, he decided to emigrate to South Africa. Almost immediately he was on his feet again, and in less than two years had built a comfortable practice. In June 1890 one of his first acts was to write to the Acting Colonial Secretary, Pietermaritzburg, in June 1890 asking for government work, pointing out that he had recently established himself in practice in Durban and had a branch office in Pietermaritzburg. In 1891 he was joined by his eldest son William who was trained as an architect and about 1897-1898 joined his father in partnership. After an initial separation, Powell's wife, Clara, reluctantly yielded to her husband's "pleadings for reconciliation,” and in 1892 she and the younger children joined him in South Africa.

Among the notable buildings in Durban designed by Powell are Durban Boys' High School and the public swimming pool. In Pietermaritzburg, he designed the Victoria Hall at Maritzburg College, the Victoria Club in Longmarket Street and the Colonial Building in Church Street, won in competition. This remains Powell's best-known building in South Africa. Powell was appointed architect in February 1895 and was occupied with its final stages when he died in 1900 aged fifty-three. The building was completed in 1901 by his son, also William Henry Powell (Powell and Son).

William Henry Powell died on 7 June 1900 at the Sanitorium, Pietermaritzburg, of “cerebral apoplexy and exhaustion” according to his death certificate. His widow, Clara, almost immediately returned to England — "[she] had never liked Natal" — taking the three younger children with her. The 1901 census has Clara, John, Owen and Norman living in Worple Road, Wimbledon with Clara’s sister Gertrude Robson.

William, continued the Powell architectural practice in Durban until 1903 at least. He was a founder member of the Natal Institute of Architects established in 1902 but his name disappears from the Natal Almanac after 1904. Sydney joined the Civil Service but had dreams of becoming a writer. After years of wandering, he settled for a while in Australia. In 1925, his literary career took him to England where he died in 1952.

Address:
1873-1878    18 Mecklenburgh Square, London 
1887        6 Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, London WC
1890        Durban,  and Pietermaritzburg Natal, South Africa
1892        29 Field Street Durban
1900        Pietermaritzburg, Natal

Residence
1885-1888    Elstree
1890        Ridge Road, Morningside, Durban, South Africa.
1900        Alexandra Road, Pietermaritzburg, Natal

Reference        Stephen Coan: A Tale of Two Phoenixes. Natalia 42 2012 page 33-44
Reference        The Globe 4 December 1889 page 4 - divorce
Reference        Times 4 December 1889 page 4 – divorce