sir edward maufe·1883 - 1974

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Edward Brantwood Maufe was born at Ilkley, Yorkshire on 12 December 1883. He was articled to the architect William A Pite in 1899, before going up to St John's College, Oxford in 1904. His first major commission, Kelling Hall (1912) in Norfolk for Sir Henry Deterding, demonstrates Maufe's early links with the Arts and Crafts Movement.

“In January 1944 Maufe was appointed Principal Architect for the United Kingdom for the Imperial War Graves Commission”

After service in the Great War, he came to prominence in 1924 with his design for the Palace of Industry at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley (1924-5).

Maufe mixed domestic, ecclesiastical, institutional and university work. He designed the churches St Bede's (1922-3) Clapham and St Saviour's (1924-6) Acton, both in London, in the style of the simplified Gothic Revival. For Cambridge he designed the Festival Theatre (1927) and made additions to Trinity College (1927) and St John's College (1938), while at Oxford he designed its Playhouse (1938) and additions to St John's College (1949). There were also sympathetic reconstructions and additions following substantial bomb damage to both Gray's Inn (1947) and the Middle Temple (1948) in London.

In 1931 he was commissioned to design St John's Church at Hook in Hampshire and in 1932 he entered and won a competition to design Guildford Cathedral - hence the similarities between the two designs: Guildford Cathedral would be the most significant work of his career. Guildford became a Church of England diocese in 1927. Work on its new cathedral began nine years later and was finally completed in the mid-1960s. It was interrupted by the Second World War and the building wasn't consecrated until 1961. It stands on Stag Hill and its red brick outline is visible for miles around. It immediately overlooks the campus of the University of Surrey.

Its bricks are made from clay taken from the hill on which it stands. The tower is 160 feet high, and contains ten bells, cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Inside, the cathedral appears to be filled with light, with pale Somerset sandstone pillars and white Italian marble floors. Much of the 1976 horror film The Omen was shot there and the 15 foot tall gilded angel on top of the cathedral was added specifically for the film. The congregation liked it so much they requested it become a permanent feature. The architecture critic Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983) described the style of the cathedral as 'sweet-tempered, undramatic Curvilinear Gothic' and thought the interior was 'noble and subtle', but was less complimentary about the fittings.

In January 1944 Maufe was appointed Principal Architect for the United Kingdom for the Imperial War Graves Commission. He designed the extension to the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill to honour the 24,000 officers and men of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets who had died in that war. His design took the form of a sunken garden on the walls of which were fixed bronze panels bearing the names. Two sculptured figures of sailors stand at the garden entrances and between the bronze panels are sculptures of the Seven Seas.

The sculptor was Charles Wheeler. In 1953 he designed the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede. An inscription the cloister entrance reads: 'In this cloister are recorded the names of 20,456 airmen who have no known grave. They died for freedom in raid and sortie over the British Isles and the land and seas of northern and western Europe'. It was the first new English building to earn Grade I listed status after the Second World War. He carried out the extensions to the naval memorials at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham. He also designed the RAF Shelter Building in Long Avenue, Brookwood Cemetery. He was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1944.

In 1957 he designed the Magna Carta Memorial on the slopes of Cooper's Hill. He rebuilt the bombed out St Columba's Church in Pont Street, London and designed St Andrew's United Reform Church in Cheam. He presented the plan, elevation and sectional drawings for his competition entry for Guildford Cathedral to the RIBA in 1973 and after his death Lady Maufe donated his early sketches and over a hundred design drawings to the RIBA. Sir Edward died at home on Shepherd's Hill, Buxted, East Sussex on 12 December 1974. An oil on canvas portrait of him by John Laviers Wheatley was exhibited in 1956 and is in the Primary Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.