Henry Seaver was born in Killeavy, Armagh, Ireland on 17 April 1860. After studying engineering at Queen's College [now Queen's University], Belfast, from where he graduated in 1880, he was articled to Robert Young (1822-1917) and John MacKenzie (1844-1917) of Young & MacKenzie in Belfast. He commenced independent practice in Belfast in 1885. From c.1932 he was in partnership with Robert Hanna Gibson (1890-1979).
Seaver was elected a Member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (MRIAI) in 1901 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (FRIAI) in 1917. He was instrumental in establishing the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1928. He was honorary architect to the Ulster Joint Committee of British Red Cross Society and Order of St John during World War One.
His address was given as 35 Royal Avenue, Belfast, in 1886, 1887; Royal Avenue, Belfast in 1892; 128 Royal Avenue, Belfast in 1900, 1908; Scottish Temperance Building, 16 Donegall Square South in 1909, 1914; 154 Malone Road, Belfast in 1896, 1941; and 30 Malone Road in 1911. He died at his home in Belfast on 6 [or 7 - sources differ] 1941.
A Biographical File on Henry Seaver is available on request from the Enquiry Desk at the Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.
Church of St. Barnabas, Belfast (1891-92); Scottish Temperance Building, Belfast (1904); "Belfast Evening Telegraph" works, Belfast (1907); Church of St. John, Malone, Belfast (1908); Longford Castle, Co. Sligo (1909); several extensive warehouses, Belfast; and many private residences in Belfast and North of Ireland. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1914]
Seaver appears to have produced little if any architectural work after the late 1920s.
For a more detailed list of architectural projects by Henry Seaver see the Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940 - Works
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
Lamour, Paul. ‘The Squire of Malone’ (Henry Seaver 1860-1941)’. Perspective vol. 3, no. 3, January 1895 pp. 59-60
Obituary’. The Builder vol. 160, 20 June 1941, p. 588