Harry Ramsay Taylor [also known incorrectly as Harry Ramsey Taylor] was born Henry Ramsay Taylor in Stranraer, Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1864 and and was articled to his father, Samuel Henry Taylor (c.1839-1890) in Wigtownshire, Scotland in 1879-80 and to John Lessels & Son in Edinburgh from 1880 to 1883. He then worked as an assistant to James Lessels (c.1834-c.1905) in Edinburgh from 1884 to 1890. In 1890 he joined Lessels in partnership as James Lessels & Harry Ramsay Taylor. Lessels retired or died in c.1905 and Taylor merged the practice with that of William Ormiston of Cousin & Ormiston as Cousin, Ormiston & Taylor.
Taylor exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1906; and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh in Edinburgh in 1901, 1903, 1907, 1910 and 1913.
Taylor was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1906.
In addition to his work as an architect, Taylor was a landscape painter. He was also an inventor. Among the most successful of his inventions was a folding periscope that was used by soldiers in the trenches during World War One.
His address was given as 140 Princes Street, Edinburgh in 1906 and 1913. He died in Edinburgh on 14 November 1922. Following his death, his wife Beatrice Rowena Marriner (1870-1950) continued his practice for a period.
A biographical file on Harry Ramsay Taylor is available on request from the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.
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’. RIBA Journal vol. 30, 1923, p. 472