Harry Beswick

• Birth date            Oct Dec 1855
• Baptism               16 December 1855, at St Oswald’s, Chester
• Marriage              12 August 1882 at Aldford, Cheshire to Edith, daughter of Charles Anderson
• Death date           8 July 1929 at the Royal Infirmary, Cheste
• Burial                    Overleigh Cemetery Chester

Born in 1855 Harry Beswick was the eldest son of William Beswick and his wife Mary. By 1871 the family were living at Upton-by-Chester, a village two miles north of Chester railway station, where William was the local schoolmaster. Harry Beswick was educated at the Kings School Chester before being articled to the Chester architect Thomas Meakin Lockwood in 1871 and went on to become his Managing Clerk by 1881.  He began independent practice in 1889 and was appointed Cheshire County Architect in 1896 and architect to the Cheshire Education Committee in 1904. As County Architect, he designed many public buildings in the county including schools, fire stations and constabularies in a style influenced by Lockwood and John Douglas. Among those he trained was Maxwell Ayrton. Ayrton went on to become a renowned London architect, whose designs included the old Wembley Stadium with its famous twin towers. He was elected FRIBA in 1905.

On 12 August 1882 Harry Beswick married Edith Anderson at Alford, Cheshire and had issue, three daughters and two sons - William Beswick (1888-1981) and Harry Beswick (1890- ) both of whom he trained as architects. For his entire married life, he lived at various addresses at Queen’s Park, the Chester suburb on the south bank of the Dee.  Harry Beswick died on 8 July 1929 at the Royal Infirmary, Chester, and was interred at Overleigh Cemetery, Chester. His practice was continued from the same office by Harry Beswick junior under the style Harry Beswick and Son. [Richard Fletcher]

Address
1883    c/o T M Lockwood 80 Foregate Street, Chester
1902    Newgate Street, Chester
1914    Grosvenor Buildings, Newgate Street Chester (Kelly Directory)
1928    Newgate Street Chester (RIBA Kalendar)

Residence
1871    Upton-by-Chester
1881    Victoria Pathway, Queen’s Park, Chester
1883    4 Victoria Pathway, Queen’s Park, Chester
1902    3 Sunny Bank, Queens Park, Chester*
1910    3 Sunny Bank, Queens Park, Chester
1914    14 Sunny Bank, Queen’s Park, Chester
1929    14 St Georges Crescent, Queens Park Chester

*Sunny Bank has not been identified on historical maps