Harry Lawrence Dighton Pearson was born in Walton on the Hill, Lancashire, England in 1867. He was articled to Charles Aldridge (?-1895) and Charles Ernest Deacon (1844-1927) in Liverpool from 1883 to 1888 and remained with them as their assistant. He then worked as an assistant in various architectural offices including that of Arthur John Gale (1857-?), Edwin Thomas Hall (1851-1923) and Alfred Hessell (1854-1910).
Pearson qualified as an architect in 1898 commenced independent practice in London the following year. By 1907 he was in partnership with William Godfrey Milburn (1875-1964) as Pearson & Milburn. The practice was awarded 2nd place in a competition to design Glamorgan County Council Hall in Cardiff, Wales. Their designs are illustrated in British Competitions in Architecture vol. 2, no. 21, April 1909 (pp. 277-280). Pearson & Milburn were in partnership until at least 1910.
By the early 1920s Pearson had been appointed Architect to the Board of Management of the West London School District. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1899 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1907.
His address was given as Central Buildings, North John Street, Liverpool in 1891; 6 John Street, Bedford Row, London in 1899; Kingston Lane, Paddington, Middlesex [now London] in 1901; 27 Chancery Lane, London in 1902 and 1908; Bix, Oxfordshire in 1911; 76 Newman Street, London in 1914; and 5 Gower Street, London in 1923 and 1925. He died in Bideford, Devon on 30 October 1925
Fulham public baths and wash-houses, 1899 -, board schools at Gillingham, Kent, 1901; electric power station at Bo'ness, Scotland, 1905; Torquay tramway offices and depot, 1905-7; John Moir and Co.'s jam factory. Stepney, 1910-11; Pintsch's factory, Stepney, 1907; Harrison and Crosfield's rubber and tea factory and warehouses at Colombo, Ceylon, 1920-21; tannery, Bermondsey, 1918-20. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]
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
'Obituary'. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 33, 1926 p.64
Who's Who in Architecture 1923. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: The Architectural Press, 1923