George Westcott

• Birth date            1875 at Farringdon Devonshire.
• Married                6 September 1905 to Nellie Parkinson at Monton Church, Eccles.
• Mayor                   1928-1929, Lord Mayor of Manchester
• Death date          4 February 1940

George Westcott was born at Farringdon, Devonshire in 1875 the fourth son of Thomas Westcott, a farmer of 168 acres, and his wife Sarah. He came to Manchester at the age of 17 to live with an uncle, both his parents having died. Among his ancestors was George Blagdon Westcott, born in Honiton in 1745 and killed at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. A monument to his memory was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. His great-uncle, was George Shorland, who came to Manchester as clerk of works when Sir Charles Barry was building the Royal Institution Art Gallery and was afterwards made the first city surveyor. Through Shorland Westcott had connections with the architect William Ball with whom he served his articles and thereby with the Boddington family of Manchester brewers, connections which would prove invaluable as his career developed.

In his earlier years he had been a private in the 2nd V.B.M.R. Mounted Infantry and soon after the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the army as a lieutenant. He was chiefly associated with transport work, although in 1918 he commanded the Sixteenth Scottish Rifles. At the beginning of 1919 he retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was awarded the Military OBE.

George Westcott developed a keen interest in local politics, entering the council in 1911 as a representative of Exchange Ward and was soon involved in many departments of municipal activity. Besides having served on the Electricity and the Paving and Highways Committees, Councillor Westcott is also a member of the Art Gallery, Watch. Establishment, Housing, Town Hall Extension, Town Planning, Work for Unemployed, and Wythenshawe Estate Committees. He is Chairman of the Watch Committee, and formerly held similar offices on the Housing and Fire Brigade Committees. He served the electors of Exchange Ward until 1931, when he became the aldermanic representative of St John's Ward. In 1928-1929 he served as Lord Mayor of the city.

Colonel Westcott became a magistrate in 1920.  For many years he took an active part in the religious, political and social life of the city and his wife was associated with him in his work with the Exchange Division Conservative and Unionist Association, of which he was a former chairman. Mrs Westcott also worked with her husband in municipal affairs for six years, representing Didsbury Ward from 1930 to 1936, when she resigned for family reasons. For fourteen years Colonel Westcott was a teacher at Hulme Sunday School and for seventeen years he attended the camps of the Manchester Church Lads' Brigade. In 1932 he became a director of Manchester United Football Club.

He commenced practice on his own account about 1901 initially specialising in domestic architecture and developed an extensive practice in south-east Lancashire. Among his major commissions, he designed the workshops at Henshaw’s Institution, the Northern Hospital in Cheetham Hill and the Art Deco Motor Coach station in Lower Mosley Street, now demolished. From the mid-twenties he obtained increasing amounts of brewery work, becoming an acknowledged expert on licensing matters. Many of these commissions were for Boddington’s Brewery with which he was connected by marriage, but not exclusively so. He was elected a Fellow of the RIBA in 1935 and was also a member of the Manchester Society of Architects.

Lieut. Colonel George Westcott OBE JP FRIBA died on February 4th, 1940 at Moseley Lodge Cheadle in his 66^th year. The funeral service was held at Cheadle Parish Church on Wednesday February 7th at 2.45 p.m. followed by a private cremation.

Address
1901-1919    George Westcott. 11 King Street West (Slater’s Directory)
1923-1932    George Westcott. FMSA. Architect & Surveyor, 13, Bridge Street (Kelly’s Directory)
1936        Lt Col George Westcott & Son 13, Bridge Street
1938-1939    G Westcott & Son 31, Byrom Street, Deansgate, Manchester 3 (Builder)

Residence
1912-1919    West Gate, the Crescent, Cheadle
1938-1940    Moseley Lodge, Wilmslow Road, Cheadle

Biographical
Reference    Manchester City News, Saturday, November 10, 1928 Page 7
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 July 1928 page 13 – Next Lord Mayor of Manchester

Obituary
Reference    Builder 27 February 1940 Page 249
Reference    Manchester Guardian, Monday, 5 February 1940, Page 10, Column 2.
Reference     Manchester City News 10 February 1940 Page 4 - Obit