Robert Weir Schultz [also known as Robert Schultz Weir] was born in Port Glasgow, Scotland on 26 July 1860. and was articled to Robert Rowand Anderson (1834-1921) in Edinburgh from c.1876 to 1881. From 1881 to 1884 he worked an apprentice with Anderson and George Washington Browne (1853-1939) in the practice Anderson & Browne which became Wardrop, Anderson & Browne in 1883 when Hew Maitland Wardrop (1856-1887) joined the partnership. In 1884 Schultz moved to London to work as an assistant in the office of Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) from 1884 to 1886; and with Ernest George (1839-1922) and Harold Ainsworth Peto (1854-1933) from 1886 to 1888. During these years he also attended the Royal Academy Schools in London and in 1887 won the RA Gold Medal and Travelling Studentship enabling him to make a study tour of Italy and Greece together with Sidney Barnsley (1865-1926).They returned to London in November 1890 and in 1891 November 1890 and in 1891 established an office in 1891 at 14 Gray's Inn Square.
Because of anti-German sentiments at the beginning of World War One, in 1914 he changed his name to Robert Schultz Weir and thereafter was commonly known as Robert S. Weir. With the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, he closed his office. Schultz's major work as an architect is considered to have been Khartoum Cathedral (1906-1913).
Schultz was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1891 and was Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1920. He was also a member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society.
His address was given as 14 Gray's Inn Square, London in 1914 and 1926 He died in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire on 29 April 1951.
A biographical file on Robert Weir Scultz is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London
Schultz's major work as an architect is considered to have been All Saints Cathedral, Sudan (1906-1913). Other works included restoration of Brunton House, Falkland, Fife (1894-95); Curling Clubhouse, House of Falkland, Falkland, Fife (1896); cottage at Welwyn Rectory, Welwyn, Hertfordshire (1897); alterations to Hillside, Welwyn, Hertfordshie (1897); alteration of the home of the Marquess of Bute's London home, St. John's Lodge, Regent's Park (1897); Scoulag Lodge, Mount Stuart, Scoulag, Bute (1898); alterations to West Green House, Hartley Wintney, Hertfordshire (1898); alterations to St. Margaret's Church, Bute (c.1898); Church of St Michael and All Angelsh, Woolmer Green, , Hertfordshire (1899-1900); Reconstruction of the Wester Kamis Tower, Isle of Bute, for the Marquess of Bute (1900); Inholmes, Hartley Wintney, Hertfordshire (1899-1901); house for House for David W Shaw, Ayr, Ayrshire (1902); Beaumonts, Four Elms, near Edenbridge, Kent (1903-04); Pickenham Hall, South Pickenham, Norfolk (1903-04); Cardiff University Settlement, East Moors, Cardiff (1904); Anglo-Boer War memorial for the Royal Army Medical Corps, Aldershot, with the sculptor W. Goscombe John (1905); How Green, near Hever, Kent (1905-06); cottages in Sproughton and Hadleigh, Suffolk (1906); Billage Hall, Shorne, Kent (c.1906); Hill Cottage, Eversley, Hampshire (1906); Mayfield, Phoenix Green, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire (c.1907); Boys' and Girls' Homes and School, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire (1907-09); Pipers Field, Winchester, Hampshire (1907-09); Knockenhair House and gatelodge, Dunbar, East Lothian (1907-10); Beaumont, Edenbridge, Kent (c.1908); Puttenham Rectory, Puttenham, Surrey (1909); Kirtling House. Winchester, Hampshire (1909-11); Lowood, Cramond Bridge, near Edinburgh (1910-12); St. Anne's Hospital, Canford Cliffs, Dorset , with Francis William Troup (1910-12); Holly Brake. Petersfield, Hampshire (1911); alterations to Cottesbrooke Hall, Northampton, Northamptonshire (1911-14); Chapel of St. Andrew, Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, London (c.1912); conversion of two barns at Phoenix Green, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire into The Barn, a house for himself (1912); Shepherd's Corner, Ascot, Berkshire (1912-13); a mausoleum in the churchyard, South Mimms, Hertfordshire (1913-15); housing for the Garden Village, Gretna, Dumfriesshire (c.1917); and six houses, Brackley Estate, Hartley Wintney (1926-31).
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See also
Dictionary of Scottish Architects
Source of Images
Crook, J. Mordaunt. 'Paron extraordinary: John, 3rd Marquess of Bute' in Victorian South Wales Architecture, Industry and Society. Seventh Conference report, the Victorian Society. London: Victorian Society, 1971 pp. 3-22 [Includes a detailed account of Schultz's work for the 3rd Marquess of Bute in Scotland]
Daneff, Tiffany. ‘Perfectly crafted’. [Garden of The Barn, Hartley Wintney, Hampshire designed by Robert Weir Schultz, possibly in collaboration with Gertrude Jekyll] Country Life vol. 216, no. 11, 17 March 2021 pp. 92-97
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 [Listed under Weir, Robert Schultz pp.952-953]
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985 [Listed under Weir, Robert Schultz]
Green, W. Curtis. 'Recent decoration at the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Westminster'. [Discusses the design of the Chapel of St Andrew and the Saints of Scotland at Westminster Cathedral by Schultz] Architectural Review vol. 40, July 1916 pp. 70-12 [
Greensted, Mary. The Arts and Crafts Movement: exchanges between Greece and Britain (1876-1930). M.Phil. thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010
Hamilton, Alec. Arts & Crafts Churches. London: Lund Humphries, 2020
Hamilton, Alec. ‘Snarks and boojums - in pursuit of the 'Arts & Crafts church'’ [Includes a discussion of St Michael & All Angels, Woolmer Green, Hertfordshire (1899-1900) designed by Robert Weir Schultz)] Ecclesiology Today no. 58, 2020, pp. 65-84.
Ottewill, David. Robert Weir Schultz (1860-1951): An Arts and Crafts Architect M.A. thesis, Courtauld Institute, London, 1977
Ottewill, David. ‘Robert Weir Schultz (1860-1951): An Arts and Crafts Architect’ Architectural History vol. 22, 1979 pp. 88-115, 161-172
Schultz, R. Weir. 'Reason in building; or, the commonsense use of materials' in The Arts Connected with Building, edited by T. Raffles Davison. London: B.T. Batsford, 1909 pp. 1-40
Stamp, Gavin. Robert Weir Schultz, architect, and his work for the Marquesses of Bute: an essay Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute: privately published, 1981.
Stamp, Gavin. The English House 1860-1914. Catalogue of an exhibition of photographs and drawings. London: InternationalArchitect and the Building Centre Trust, 1980 p. 45
Who’s Who in Architecture 1914. London: Technical Journals Ltd., 1914 [listed under Robert Weir Schultz]
Who’s Who in Architecture 1926. Edited by Frederick Chatterton. London: The Architectural Press, 1926
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 180, 11 May 1951 p. 663