John Ninian Comper [also known as Sir John Ninian Comper] was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on 10 June 1864. In 1882 he spent a term studying drawing at Ruskin Schoolof Art in Oxford. In 1883 he moved to London where he worked as a voluntary assistant in the studio of Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), a designer and manufacturer of stained glass. He also attended classes at the South Kensington School of Art. He decided to embark on a career as an architect and in late 1883 was articled to the Gothic Revival architects George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907) and Thomas Garner (1839-1906) of Bodley & Garner.
On completing his articles Comper commenced practice as an architect in London and in 1888 formed a partnership with William Bucknall (1851-1944) whom he had met at Bodley & Garner's office.
Comper's partnership with Bucknall was dissolved in 1905 and thereafter he worked independently.
In all Comper designed fifteen churches and renovated, restored, altered, decorated and furnished many more. "No other English church architect of the twentieth century endeavoured to penetrate so deeply to the core of Western civilization by studying the church art and architecture of Europe in order to find there spiritual values for his own time" [Anthony Symondson. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]
Comper lived at 5 Chapel Road, Norwood, Surrey from 1890 to 1894; and 5 Gipsy Road, Norwood Surrey from 1905 to 1912 hen he moved to The Priory, Beulah Hill, Crystal Palace, south London, where he lived for the rest of his life. His office was located at 35 Old Queen Street, Westminster, London until 1905 when it was relocated to 228 Knight's Hill, London, where he remained until 1946. Comper was knighted for his services to architecture in 1950. He died at the Hostel of God, Clapham Common, London on 22 December 1960.
A biographical file on John Ninian Comper is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
Commissions on which Comper worked during his association with Bucknall included the restoration of St Wilfrid’s church in Cantley, Yorkshire (1892–94); the restoration of St Mary’s church in Egmanton, Nottinghamshire (1897); the conversion of the south aisle of the crypt of St Mary Magdalene’s in Paddington, London, into a chantry and Blessed Sacrament chapel (1895–99); and St Cyprian's church, at Clarence Gate, St Marylebone, London (1902–03). In 1904 Comper embarked on the furnishing and decorating of St. Mary's church in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Considered his masterpiece by Anthony Symondson [Oxford Grove Art], Comper worked on on the commission until 1931.
Commissions on which Comper worked following his split with Bucknall includeHoly Trinity, Southchurch, Southend-on-Sea, Essex (1906); St. Mary, Knox Road, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire (1906-30); St. Mary, Toad Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire (1909-11); St. Michael, Newquay, Cornwall (1909-11); St. Martin's Chapel, Herritage Crafts School, Chailey, Sussex (1913); a series of windows for Westminster Abbey in London; a baldachin and the east window, designed as part of a war memorial (1921-23); Welsh National War Memorial in Cardiff, Wales (1923–28); and the Lady Chapel at St Matthew's Church, Westminster, London; and the Lindsey Memorial Chapel at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts (consecrated in 1924).
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See also:
Anson, Peter F. ‘The Work of John Ninian Comper: A Pioneer Architect of the Modern Liturgical Movement’. Pax : the monthly review of the Benedictines of Prinknash, Gloucester. vol. 37, November 1937 pp. 177-184
Anson, Peter. ‘Sir Ninian Comper: a pioneer architect of the modern liturgical revival’ Transaction of the Scottish Ecclesiastical Society vol. 14, 1950 pp. 7-16
Betjeman, John. A note on J. N. Comper: heir to Butterfield and Bodley’. Architectural Review vol. 85, February 1939 pp. 79-82
Blackwell, Chris. ‘St Mary-in-the-Baum, Rochdale’. [Architect (1911): Sir Ninian Comper]. Church Building & Heritage Review no. 129, May/June 2011, p. 26-29.
Buckley, Leonard. Sir Ninian Comper, 1864-1960 and Howard Martin Otto (Otho) Travers, 1886-1948: A Belated Tribute. London: Ecclesiological Society, 1994
Bucknall, Stephen A. (compiler).[List of the works of Sir J. Ninian Comper] Monmouth: The compiler, 1986. [66pp. Copy available RIBA Library, London]
Comforth, John ‘Last master of the Gothic’ Country Life vol. 182, no. 2, 14 January 1988 pp. 64-66.
Comper, John Ninian. Of the atmosphere of a church. London: Sheldon Press, 1947
Comper, John Ninian. Of the Christian altar and the buildings which contain it. London: S.P.C.K., 1950.
Comper, Ninian. Further Thoughts on the English Altar, or Practical Considerations on the Planning of a Modern Church. [Being a continuation of a paper read before the Society in 1893]. London : W. Heffer, 1933.
Comper, Ninian. Practical Considerations on the Gothic or English Altar and Certain Dependent Ornaments. Aberdeen: [publisher not identified], 1895
Comper, Ninian. The Reasonableness of the Ornaments Rubric Illustrated by a Comparison of the German and English Altars. London: [publisher not identified], 1897
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Fenwick, Hubert. Sir John Comper : a Christian architect. West Park, N.Y.: Holy Cross Publications, 1965
Goodall, John. ‘Parish church treasures. War memorial.’ [Discusses the altarpiece designed by Sir Ninian Comper as a war memorial at the church of Our Lady and St Thomas of Canterbury, Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk between 1919 and 1928] Country Life vol. 208, no. 38, 17 september 2014
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985
Hamilton, Alec. Arts & Crafts Churches. London: Lund Humphries, 2020
Hope, Michael. The early work of Sir John Ninian Comper. Leicester: Leicester University, 1982.
Hope, Michael. ‘Sir John Ninian Comper, 1864–1960’ Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects vol. 3, 1984 90–99.
Jenkins, Simon. ‘England's thousand best churches. St Denys, Sleaford, Lincolnshire. [Designed by Ninian Comper] Country Life vol. 192, no. 21, 21 May 1998 p. 65.
Jenkins, Simon. ‘England's thousand best churches. St Mary, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. [Designed by Ninian Comper] Country Life vol. 193, no. 4, 28 January 1999 p. 58.
MacAllan, Jane. ‘The work of Sir John Ninian Comper: pastiche and valueless as an expression of contemporary art?’ Ecclesiology Today no. 36, June 2006 pp. 25-42
O’Corra, Simon ‘St Mary's, Wellingborough by Sir John Ninian Comper.’ Church Building no. 64, 2000 July/August 2000, pp. 14-17.
Symondson, Anthony and Bucknall, Stephen. Sir Ninian Comper: An Introduction to His Life and Work, with complete gazetteer Reading, England: Spire Books, 2006.
Symondson, Anthony. The Life and Work of Sir Ninian Comper 1864-1960. London: Royal Institute of British Architects, 1988 [exhibition catalogue]
Symondson, Anthony. ‘Art Needlework in Ireland: Sir Ninian Comper, Lady Mayo and the Royal Irish School of Art Needlework’. Irish Arts Review Yearbook, vol. 10. 1994 pp. 126–35
Symondson, Anthony. ‘Further thoughts on Sir Ninian Comper: an introduction and gazetteer’ Ecclesiology Today no. 40, July 2008 pp. 6-11.
Symondson, Anthony. ‘John Betjeman and the Cult of J.N. Compeer’. The Thirties Society Journal no.7, 1991 pp.2-3
Symondson, Anthony. ‘Medievalism in the twentieth century: St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, London’ [Architect (1902): Sir J Ninian Comper] Victorian no. 14, November 2003 pp. 12-15
Symondson, Anthony. ‘Unity by Inclusion: Sir Ninian Comper and the Planning of a Modern Church’ Twentieth Century Architecture. The Journal of the Twentieth Century Society [The Twentieth Century Church special issue] no.3, 1998 pp.18-42
Victorian church art. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1971 [Catalogue of and exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London]
Wright, Andrew. ‘Ninian Comper: St John the Baptist, Rothiemurchus’. Architectural Heritage no. 12, 2001, p. 52-65.
'Obituary’. The Architectural Review vol. 129, March 1961 pp. 153-154
‘Obituary’. The Architect & Building News vol. 219, no. 4 January 1961 p. 5
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 200, 1961 p. 22
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal February 1961 p. 145
‘Obituary’. The Architects’ Journal vol. 133, 22 January 1961 p. 43
‘Sir J. Ninian Comper’ Architects' Journal 12 January 1950 pp, 34, 39