Kathleen Anne Veitch [also known as Kathleen Annie Veitch, and as Kathleen A. Veitch] was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland on 24 April 1908. From 1924 to 1924 to 1929 she attended the Architectural Association Schools in London. She qualified as an architect in 1929. In 1929-30 she worked as an assistant in the office of Romaine-Walker & Jenkins in London. In 1930 she was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). That year she was awarded the Owen Jones Travelling Studentship and in betweeen March and May 1931 used her prize-winning money of £100 to tour Southern Spain. She subsequently produced a 34-page report on her tour which was deposited in the RIBA Library.
From c.1931 to 1934 she was employed as an architect by the Duke of Roxburgh working on improvements to his estate. During the 1930s she lived both in London and in Scotland. Her address was given as 79 Wimpole Street, London from 1930 to 1932; Summerfield, Hawick, Scotland in 1933-34; and 9 Gray's Inn Square, London from 1935 to 1939. Thereafter, she lived permanently to Scotland.
In 1956 she was elected a member of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
In addition to her work as an architect Veitch was a watercolour painter. She was a member of the Hawick Art Club and exhibited with them in 1934, 1935 and 1936. She gave lectures to the club, including on 'Comfort and Beauty in the Home' in 1937.
Her address was given as Greenwells, Gattonside, Melrose, Roxburghsire, Scotland in 1950.
On 11 March 1968 her body was found at East Links, Elle, Fife. It would appear that she had been murdered, possibly the month before. A crucifix above the altar in the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph, Selkirk, is dedicated to her.
The RIBA Library has a biographical file on Kathleen Anne Veitch
Information on architectural projects by Veitch is sketchy. She is known to have designed Greenwells, a house in Gattonside, Melrose, Roxburghshire for her mother, Margaet Reeve Veitch; and Little Salt Hall in Hawick, Roxburghshire in c.1937. She also designed alterations to other houses in Scotland between the the 1930s and the 1950s. A design for the main reception suite in a national radio station by her is illustrated in Colour in Interior Decoration by John M. Holmes (London: The Architectural Press, 1931 p. 89). Between 1958 and 1968 she was engaged on renovations and repairs to the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph in Selkirk, Scotland.
‘Elie probe’. Aberdeen Press and Journal 13 March 1968 p. 1 [A report on the death of Kathleen Veitch]