Stewart Henbest Capper

Stewart Henbest Capper (15 December 1859 – 8 January 1925) was a prominent architect in the Arts and Crafts style closely associated with Sir Patrick Geddes with much of his work sadly mislabelled as Geddes’. Due to ill health he did not achieve much that he might have, and his contemporary Sydney Mitchell completed much of his most public works. In later life he is remembered more as an academic in Canada than for his work in Scotland and much of his due fame has been laid on the shoulders of his clients and those who completed his works.

Born in Douglas, Isle of Man the son of John J. Capper he was raised in Upper Clapton in London until his family moved to Edinburgh when Stewart was nine years old. He, and his two brothers, were educated at the Royal High School, where he was dux for the academic year 1874/5. At 16 he then won a place at Edinburgh University and gained a First Class Degree in Classics. The studies included a period attending the University of Heidelberg in Germany, from which it may be concluded that he spoke German competently.

Capper then decided to pursue a life in architecture and received a post in the office of John Burnet & Son in Glasgow in 1884. However, ill-health forced him to abandon this role, and he chose instead to act in the role of personal tutor to the only son of Sir Robert Morier a diplomat in Portugal, also acting as Morier’s personal secretary. Here he learned both Portuguese and Spanish. After a relatively brief period in this role he moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a pupil of Jean-Louis Pascal. He stayed here for 4 years of study, during which time he befriended Alexander Nisbet Paterson, Frank Worthington Simon and John Keppie.

He returned to Edinburgh in 1887 to work as assistant to George Washington Browne where he worked until 1891 whereafter he moved totally to his own practice which he had established in 1888. During this period with Browne he undoubtedly had input into the design of the Central Library on George IV Bridge, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Wright’s Buildings on Bruntsfield Place and the Solicitors Buildings on the Cowgate.

...
Wikipedia