Michael John Tapper [also known as Michael Tapper] was born in Chelsea, London, England on 27 August 1886 and was the son of the architect Walter John Tapper (1861-1935). He studied at the Architectural Association Schools in London from 1905 to 1909. He then work as an assistant to Maximilian Clarke (1851-1938) and Matthew Garbutt (c.1864-1918) of Clarke & Garbutt; to Arnold Dunbar Smith (1866-1933) and Cecil Claude Brewer (1871-1948) of Smith & Brewer; to Thomas Phillips Figgis (1858-1948); and to his father, W. J. Tapper.
He qualified as an architect in 1911 and from c.1912 to c.1914 lived and worked in Western Australia. Following the outbreak of World War One he returned to England. During the war he served as a Captain in the Army and was awarded the Military Cross (M.C) for gallantry. Following the war he practised as an architect in London and from 1920 was in partnership with his father. Following the death of his father in 1935 he continued the practice.
M. J. Tapper, like his father, mainly designed or restored churches. During the 1950s and early 1960s He was in partnership with John Antony Lewis (1914-1998). The practice was responsible for the rebuilding, (to a new design), St. Matthew's Church at Bethnal Green in 1957-61. The church had been destroyed by bombing in 1940.
He was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1911, and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1935.
He exhibited architectural drawings at the Royal Academy in London in 1936, 1939, 1946 and 1951
A gas fire designed by Tapper in collaboration with Sir Lawrence Weaver is illustrated in Design in the Home, edited by Noel Carrington (London: Country Life, 1933 p.106).
Tapper's address was given as 10, Mellna Place, London 1914 and 1930; 4 Dean's Yard, Westminster, London, London in 1934 and 1936; 1 St. Leonard's Terrace, London in 1939 and 1951; and Flat 1, 38 Onslow Square, South Kensington. London 1963. He died in Kensington, London on 29 October 1963
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