Myerscough-Walker , Herbert Raymond 1908 - 1984

Herbert Raymond Myerscough-Walker [commonly known as Raymond Myerscough-Walker] was born Herbert Raymond Walker [1] in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, on 30 October 1908. After studying at Leeds School of Art, he won a scholarship to the Architectural Association in London in 1928 from where he gained an AA Diploma.. He subsequently worked as an architect, painter, designer and writer.

He was an admirer of the Modern movement in architecture and in the early 1930s shared an office with avowed Modernist architects Louis de Soissons and Grey Wornum. It did not, however, establish his own independent architectural practice.

During the 1930s he began designing film sets, notably for the comedy film Diamond Cut Diamond (1932) made by Elstree Studios, and was the author of a book on the subject: Stage and Film Decor (London: Pitman, 1940).

In 1936-37 he designed 'The Sun House, a circular house built at Chilwell, near Nottingham, and designed a penthouse in Ladbroke Grove, London, for Charles Kearley in 1938. Apart from these completed commissions, he worked on few architectural projects. He was, instead, much in demand as a perspectivist by other architects. Two photographs of models, plans, and drawings of the south elevation and a section of 'Murus', an experiment in standardisation designed by him, and a photograph and plan of a bedroom at 19 Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, reconstructed by him, are illustrated in 'Decorative Art' 1935 (pp. 26, 27, 102). He was the author of Choosing a Modern House (London: The Studio Ltd., 1939).

During World War Two he was engaged by the Royal Air Force in the design of layouts and painting landscape cycloramas for the Link Trainer, a static cockpit simulator used for training pilots.

Myerscough-Walker had lived in London until 1945 when he moved with his family to West Sussex. He continued to work on commissions as a perspectivist and in 1958 wrote The Perspectivist, a book on the subject published by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.

Myerscough-Walker's work as a painter was influenced by the Surrealist school. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in London on 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1940.

In addition to authoring three books, Myerscough-Walker contributed articles to The Artist, The Architect and Building News, The National Builder, Architectural Design & Construction, House Builder & Estate Developer and The Architects' Journal.

He died suddenly while working at his woodland caravan studio in Sussex on 20 June 1984. His death was registered in Chichester, Sussex

____

[1] At a later date, following the death of his father, he added his mother's maiden name, Myerscough, to his surname.