Charles Cowles-Voysey [also known as Charles Cowles Voysey, and as Charles Voysey] was the son of the architect Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941). He was born was born Charles Voysey in London on 24 June 1889 and studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1906 and at University College, London from 1907 to 1909. He was then articled to Horace Field (1861-1948) and Frederick Moore Simpson (1855-1928) from 1909 to 1911, He briefly worked as an assistant to his father in 1911. He qualified as an architect in 1911 and that year established his own independent practice in London. In 1912 he married Dorothea Denise Cowles (1885-1980) and changed his surname to Cowles-Voysey, as did his wife.
In 1933 John Brandon-Jones (1908-1999) joined Cowles Voysey's practice as an assistant and was later a partner. They won a competition for the design of Watford Town Hall, and later designed the town halls in Worthing and Bromley, as well as the Guildhall in Cambridge and the Hull Festival House.
Cowles-Voysey was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1912 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British architects (FRIBA) in 1927. He was a Donaldson Medallist in 1908-09, and was awarded the RIBA Architecture Bronze Medal for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxford in 1932.
His address was given as 23 Yorke Place, Baker Street, London and 1 Erskine Hill, Golders Green in 1912; 10 New Square, Lincolns Inn, London, and 66 Willifield Way, Golders Greenm London in 1914; 14, Gray's Inn Square, London in 1923 and 1939. He died in London on 10 April 1981.
Notable among Voysey's architectural projects were Bridgeton Public Halls in Glasgow (1924); Kingsley Hall and the Children's House in London (1927); and Chance Wood in Sevenoaks, Kent (1929).
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001