Henry Shelmerdine

• Born            23 July 1856, Liverpool.
• Died            2 September 1935, Southport.
• Burial          Birkdale Cemetery, Southport

Henry Shelmerdine was born on 23 July 1856 in Liverpool, the youngest son of Thomas Shelmerdine (qv) and his wife, Mary Ellen. He was educated at the Royal Institution School, Liverpool, and University College London before entering into partnership with his brother Edward as architects and surveyors in Liverpool. This partnership ended in 1882 and the greater part of Henry’s subsequent professional career was spent in the employment of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. In 1882 he obtained the commission for the hotel and offices in front of Exchange Station, Tithebarn Street, the Liverpool terminus of the L & Y Railway. Before work on the hotel was completed, he had accepted the position of architect, surveyor, and land agent to the Company and would remain at the Engineer’s Office in Hunts Bank, Manchester until his retirement some thirty-five years later. In accepting this position he became part of the all-embracing L & Y Railway Engineer’s Department. It is therefore often difficult to determine the extent of his involvement in building works undertaken by the Company, not least in the rebuilding of Victoria Station Manchester (1901-1908). His biographical entry in Tracy and Pike published in 1899 makes no reference to work undertaken as architect and land agent to the company.

On 1 January 1922 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway merged with the London North Western Railway. One of Henry Shelmerdine’s last designs for the Company was that for the bronze War Memorial at Victoria Station, raised in memory of the 1,465 members of the Lancashire and Yorkshire's staff killed during the First World War.

About 1885 he married Emily Mary, the marriage producing four daughters: Olivia, Phyllis Mary, Anne or Nancy Clegg, and Emily Evelyn.  In 1910 Olivia married John Meadows Frost of Chester. Their son Henry Shelmerdine Frost was killed in action in Eritrea in 1941 and is also commemorated in a memorial window in the cloisters of Chester Cathedral.

Henry Shelmerdine died on 2 September 1935 at 59 Albert Road Southport and was buried in Birkdale Cemetery.

 Address
1882    Edward and Henry Shelmerdine, architects   101 Dale Street Liverpool
1883    Henry Shelmerdine 101 Dale Street Liverpool (Slater Directory)
1884    Henry Shelmerdine 81 Dale Street Liverpool (Manchester Guardian)
1885    Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Engineer’s Office, Hunts Bank, Manchester
1921    Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Engineer’s Office, Hunts Bank, Manchester

Residence
1891    Didsbury /Chorlton Manchester CHECK
1893    Southport (CHECK)
1900    Holmfield Park Road Southport (Pike)
1910    South Lawn, Southport (Times 5 October 1910 p1 –marriage Frost : Shelmerdine)
1920    Southport (Times 1920 page)
1935    59, Albert Road, Southport (Manchester Guardian 4 September 1935 page16)