William Austin Daft * was born in Lenton, Nottinghamshire, England on 14 May 1884 and was articled to Arthur Marshall (1858-1915) in Nottingham from 1901 to 1905. He then worked as an assistant to Henry Thomas Sandy (1870?-1922) in Stafford in 1905-06, and to S. Stallard in Oxford from 1906. Having qualified as an architect, Daft was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1909. He subsequently practised as an architect in Oxford until at least the late 1930s. He was a member of the Oxford Society of Architects and its Chairman in the mid-1930s.
Daft's address was given as 8 New Road, Oxford in 1909 and 1923; 9 New Road, Oxford in 1926 and 1930; 6A Cornmarket Street, Oxford in 1935 and 1939; and Byways, Cossington Road, Ploughley, Oxfordshire in 1939. He died in Yarnton, Oxfordshire, in 1951.
* He changed his surname to Cockerton by deed poll in 1922, although he appears to have continued to use the name Daft for several years after that and is the surname given in the 1939 England and Wales Register.
County Offices, Oxford, 1912; additions to Middleton Park, for the Right Hon. the Earl of Jersey, 1914; Brimpton Orange, Oxon, for Sir Paul Makins, Bart., J.P., 1922; "Seven Winds", Steeple Aston, Oxon, for Bertram Worrall, Esq., 1918; Campsfield Wood, Woodstock, Oxon, for Lt.-Col. Stallard, D.S.O., 1912; Ascott Estate Small Holdings, for the Oxfordshire County Council, 1921; additions to Sowidern Manor, for Col. A. E. England, 1913. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]
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