William Henry Dunn

• Birth date            November 1842 at Newcastle
• Marriage              28 August 1867 to Isabella Armstrong at Berwick Street Baptist Chapel, Newcastle
• Death date          24 May 1905 at No. 1, Belle Vue Terrace, Durham Road, Gateshead
  
• Burial                  27 May 1905 at Gateshead Cemetery
• Probate                Durham 21 July 1905 Effects £1082 19s

 William Henry Dunn was born in November 1842 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the son of Daniel Dunn and Mary Dunn (née Thompson). He left school at the age of twelve to become a joiner, devoting his spare time to attending the School of Art, instituted by Lord Armstrong, at Elswick Institute. Turning his attention to matters architectural, he succeeded in entering the office of Thomas Prosser, architect, of the North-Eastern Railway, being his first pupil. About 1874 he joined Matthew Thompson*, architect, Eldon Square, in partnership under the style of Thompson and Dunn. On the death of Matthew Thompson in 1878 W, H. Dunn continued the practice under the name of the firm, at St. Nicholas Buildings, Newcastle.

He was a prominent Baptist, being senior deacon of Durham Road Church and superintendent of the Sunday School. He was one of the founders and president of the Gateshead Sunday School Union. In politics he was a Liberal, entering the Town Council of Gateshead in November 1879, as the representative the West Ward. and he represented that ward without a break until the March of 1891, when he was elected an alderman. He was Mayor of Gateshead in November in 1893, and he was re-elected Mayor of the same borough in the following year.W H Dunn made the plans and designs of the Baptist church in Heaton-road, Newcastle-on-Tyne, having a capacity of 750 persons, (1896); and of the vestry hall and schoolrooms for St. Christopher’s, at Walker, Northumberland, (1893). He was the architect of many schools for the Gateshead School Board, comprising the schools in Rose-street; at Teams; and those, for 750 scholars, in Kelvin-grove (1887), which he afterwards enlarged with the addition of six classrooms and a central hall, and of a junior department for more than 300 in Victoria Road.

W,H. Dunn was a member of the Northern Architectural Association and served for a term as President of that Society in 1884-5. 

In 1867 he married Isabella Armstrong at Berwick Street Baptist Chapel, Newcastle.  

William Henry Dunn died at his residence, No. 1, Belle Vue Terrace, Durham Road, Gateshead, on 24 May 1905 and was interred at Gateshead Cemetery. He left a widow, three sons and one daughter.

William Henry Dunn was in practice in Newcastle at the same time as Archibald Matthias Dunn and a certain confusion has arisen in respect of the two men. The Dictionary of British Architects incorrectly records a partnership between A M Dunn and Mathew Thompson while devoting minimal information in respect of W H Dunn. This error has been repeated in several subsequent publications.

 *CHECK -was Matthew Tompson his uncle?

Address
1878             5, St. Nicholas-Buildings, Newcastle-on-Tyne,

Residence
1870             High West Street Gateshead [Newcastle Courant 22 April 1870 [page 8 births]
1885-1905    1 Belle Vue Terrace, Durham Road, Gateshead

Obituary        Builder v88, 10 June 1905, page 634
Obituary        Building News, 88, 2 June 1905, p.780
Obituary       Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 25 May 1905, page 6.
Funeral         Newcastle Daily Chronicle 29 May 1905 page 7