Francis Milton Cashmore

• Birth date            29 February 1892
• Christening          22 April 1892 at St Saviour’s Church, South Hampstead
• Married (1)          July-Sept 1916 Marguerite Richardson (-1956) at Hampstead
• Married (2)          April-June 1957 Josephine L Danks at Cuckfield Sussex
• Death date          13 July 1971 at Hampstead Garden Suburb
• Cremation           16 July 1971 at St Marylebone Crematorium

Francis Milton Cashmore was born on 29 February 1892 at Hampstead, the son of Francis William Cashmore and his wife Elizabeth Sarah Phoebe Cashmore. He was educated at University College School before training at the Regent Street Polytechnic school of architecture and from 24 November 1914 at the Royal Academy Schools, where his mentor was Lutyens.  Elected as Associate of the RIBA in 1920, he was in practice on his own account for a short period, designing private houses at Alderley Edge. Cheshire. and the "Oxford & Cambridge" public house in the Hammersmith Bridge Road. In 1924 he joined the offices of Ashley and Winton Newman and subsequently of Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, for whom he worked on the Heal's building, Tottenham Court Road. In the late 1920s. Cashmore joined the firm of Messrs Joseph. of which he became a partner and. in 1960, senior partner.

There he was associated with a range of buildings which included flats at Hurlingham and in the West End for the Prudential Assurance Company, offices for River Plate House, EC2: offices in Bishopsgate for Samuel Montagu; head offices for Alliance Assurance in Bartholomew Lane. Probably their best-known work was the Art Deco Shellmex House. built on the site of the Cecil Hotel in the Strand. for the Shell Company for whom they also designed offices in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Other buildings of the 1930s included the Denham Film Studios; the Bearstead memorial hospital, Stoke Newington: the Bath Club reconstruction in St. James's; and the new Gamage’s store near Marble Arch. In April 1939 he was elected a Fellow of the RIBA. After the Second World War, the firm were involved in developments in the Moorfields area of the City. Works included Longbow House and BP House before being commissioned by British Petroleum to design Britannic House. their headquarters in Chiswell Street.

Cashmore was an excellent water-colour artist and held an exhibition of his work in London in the 1960s. 

Francis Milton Cashmore died suddenly on 13 July 1971 at his residence 70 Addison Way, Hampstead Garden Suburb, having visited his office on the previous day. He was survived by his wife, Josephine, and his sons Geoffrey and Tony.