Harold Alfred Dod was born in Birkdale, Lancashire, England in 1890 and from 1906 to 1909 studied at Liverpool University School of Architecture where he was awarded a B.A. in 1909 and an M.A. in 1910.
From 1909 to 1911 he worked as an assistant to Charles Herbert Reilly (1874-1948) and from 1913 to William Edward Willink (1856-1924) and Philip Coldwell Thicknesse (1860-1920) of Willink & Thicknesse.
Dod qualified as an architect in 1913 and in 1913-14 was a lecturer and studio instructor at Liverpool University School of Architecture. After serving in the Army in France during World war One, he returned to Willink & Thicknesse and following the death of Thicknesse in 1920 was was invited by Willink to become a partner in the practice which was renamed Willinck & Dod. After the death of Willink in 1924, Dod continued to run the practise with the name unchanged.
Dod was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1914 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1931. He was also a member of the Liverpool Architectural Society and its President.
Dod had an office in the Cunard Building in Liverpool for many years. He retired in 1956 and died in Hampshire on 12 May 1965.
Works in partnership with Willink (up to 1924): reconstruction of Liverpool, London and Globe offices, Liverpool; interior decoration of ships for the Cunard S.S. Co., and the Anchor-Donaldson Line; school buildings for King William's College, Castletown, Isle of Man; and various War Memorials. Later works by Dod: offices for the Royal Exchange Assurance Company, Liverpool (1927); Rebuilding of The Athenaeum, Liverpool (completed 1928); Derby and Rathbone Halls of Residence, Mossley Hill, Liverpool; the Harold Cohen Library, University of Liverpool (completed 1938); a vestibule for Gibraltar Cathedral; Thor's Hall, Thurstaston, Wirral; and the Spillers Dog Biscuit Factory, Birkenhead.
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
Sharples, Joseph, Powers, Alan and Shippobottom, Michael. Charles Reilly & the Liverpool School of Architecture 1904-1933. Catalogue of an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 25 October 1996 - 2 February 1997. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996 p. 169 [Contains other references to Dod, unfortunately, the catalogue is not indexed]
Who's Who in Architecture 1923. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: The Architectural Press, 1923