Gerald Callcott Horsley [commonly known as Gerald Horsley] was born in Cranbrook, Kent, England on 31 October 1862 and was the son of the painter John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903). He trained as an architect under Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) from 1879 to 1882 and worked as his assistant in 1883. He was then an assistant to John Dando Sedding (1838-1891) in 1884-85. He attended the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1881 and was an RIBA Owen Jones Student in 1887 and 1888. He commenced independent practice as an architect in Bloomsbury, London in 1888.
Horsley designed railway stations for the London and North Western Railway, a number of churches and several country houses. One of his most important commissions was St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith , London(1901-02, 1914)
Horsley was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1890, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1900. He was also a founder member of the Art Workers Guild in 1884, and was President of the Architectural Association in 1911-12 and 1912-13. Horsley was a consummate draughtsman and exhibited his architectural drawings at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and frequently at the Royal Academy in London. He also designed textiles, art metalwork and was an illustrator. He illustrated A History of Gothic Art in England by Edward Schroeder Prior (1900).
His address was given as 14 Hart Street, Bloomsbury Square, London in 1888 and 1894; Summit Cottage, St. Mark's Hill, Surbiton, London in 1907; 2, Gray's Inn Square, London in 1900 and 1914; and from 1905 in 28 Bedford Gardens, Kensington, London where he died on 2 July 1917.
A biographical file on Gerald Callcott Horsley is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London
Notable among his commissions were Bryn Eithin, Colwyn Bay (Bae Colwyn), Conwy, Wales (1889); Church of England School, Arundel, Sussex (1889-90); Chapel and offices, University Mission to Central Africa, Dartmouth Street, Westminster, London (1896); 24-25 King William Street, City of London (1896): Church Schools, Arundel, Sussex (1900-03); St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, London (1900-02, 1914).; Ballroom wing, Balcombe Place, Balcombe, Sussex (1899); St. Chad's Church, Longsdon, near Leek, Staffordshire (1902-06); Coombe Field, Godalming, Surrey (1904); Brantridge Forest, Balcombe, Sussex (1904); Framewood, near Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire (1904); Coverwood, near Gomshall, Surrey (1909); reredos for St. Peter, Hammersmith, London (1909); Harrow and Pinner Railway Station, off Lower Road, Harrow, Middlesex (1911-12); Extension to Baring Brothers, 10-12 Bishopsgate, City of London (1913); and he Links, near Hythe, Kent (1914).
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