Thomas Duncan Rhind [also known as Sir Thomas Duncan Rhind] was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 14 July 1871. His father, John Rhind (1828-1892), was a sculptor and an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. He was articled to Hippolyte Jean Blanc (1844-1917) in Edinburgh from 1887 to 1892. He then moved to London where he spent six months in the London County Council Architectural Department before working as an assistant in the office of James Glen Sivewright Gibson (1861-1951) and Samuel Bridgman Russell (1864-1955) of Gibson & Russell. Rhind qualified as an architect in 1894 and the following year was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA).
By 1897 Rhind had returned to Edinburgh and in 1898 formed the architectural partnership Hamilton-Paterson & Rhind with Robert Hamilton-Paterson (1843-1911). The partnership was short-lived and was dissolved in c.1905. Thereafter, Rhind worked alone.
During World War One he held various quasi-military administrative appointments including Controller of Statistics to the Minister for National Service and Chief Recorder at the Ministry for which he was knighted in 1919. Following the war Rhind resumed his architectural practice in Edinburgh.
In addition to his work as an architect, Rhind was also an etcher. He exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The design a window for a church (?) in Melrose, Scotland by Rhind in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, suggests that he may also have designed stained glass.
Rhind died in Hove, Sussex, England on 24 April 1927 and was buried in Edinburgh.
Rhind was never a prolific architect. Among his projects were a shop and tea room in Edinburgh for Macvitties, Guest & Co. (1900); Cranston's Ivanhoe Hotel in London (1907); Hepburn House, Edinburgh (1911-12); the Territorial Army Building in Edinburgh (1912), and memorials to Queen Victoria in Liverpool and for the South African War in Hawick and Edinburgh.
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’. The Builder 6 May 1927 p. 716
'Obituary'. The Watsonian vol. 23, 3 July 1927 p. 137