Sir Frank Mears

Sir Frank Charles Mears PPRSA FRSE LLD (11 July 1880 – 25 January 1953) was an architect and Scotland's leading planning consultant from the 1930s to the early 1950s.

Born in Tynemouth he moved to Edinburgh in 1897 when his father, Dr William Pope Mears, was appointed to a lecturing post in the Anatomy Department of Edinburgh University. The family lived at Woodburn House on Canaan Lane in the Morningside district of Edinburgh.

He trained as an architect, initially under Hippolyte Blanc (1896-1901), and then, in 1903, under Robert Weir Schultz (1860-1951). In 1906, after tours of England and the Continent, he returned to Scotland and worked under Ramsay Traquair (1874-1952). In 1908 he became an assistant to the pioneer planner Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), working on the Civic Survey of Edinburgh for the first ever Town Planning Exhibition (1910).

He worked with Geddes and his daughter Norah on the creation of a Scottish National Zoological Garden 1913-14 which became Edinburgh Zoo. In 1915 he married Norah Geddes, making Patrick Geddes his father-in-law.

In World War I he served with Geddes' son Alasdair in the Kite Balloon section of the Royal Flying Corps and, importantly, invented the modern parachute (and quick release buckle) whilst serving as a Major in this role.

Mears was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1936, became full academician in 1943 and served as its President 1944-50. The University of Edinburgh conferred an honorary doctorate (LLD) on him in 1945, and he was knighted in 1946. He also advised the Department of Health on Housing in Scotland.

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