Joseph Emberton

• Birth date      23 December 1889 at Audley, Staffordshire 
• Marriage       23 June 1926 to Kathleen Marie Chantrey at St Mark’ Church, North Audley Street
• Death date    20 November 1956 at Charing Cross Hospital, Westminster
• Funeral         Hove Parish Church followed by private cremation

The eldest of four sons and one daughter of Samuel Emberton and his wife (nee Hilditch), Joseph Emberton was born in Audley, Staffordshire, on 23 December 1889 and was educated at Newcastle-under-Lyne Middle School before being articled to Chapman & Snape in Newcastle-under-Lyme (1906-07).   In 1911 he was awarded a free studentship and between 1911 and 1913 he studied at the Kensington College of Art (later the Royal College of Art), where the Professor of Ornament and Design was W. R. Lethaby, and the Royal Academy Schools in London. He first worked for the London architects Trehearne and Norman between 1913 and 1914. During the First World War he served in the Honourable Artillery Company in Egypt and Aden and afterwards in France as Staff Officer for Reconnaissance with the 55th Divisional Artillery (Liverpool Division) and was badly wounded in October 1918. From c.1919 to 1922 he worked as an assistant to Thomas Smith Tait (1882-1954) of Sir John Burnet, Tait & Partners  In 1922

In 1922 began to specialise in commercial and retail work, particularly shops and trade exhibitions having been taken into partnership by Percy Westwood who had built up a good practice in this field through contacts such as that with Austin Reed, during which time their work included pavilions for the British Empire Exhibition (1924-25), shops for Austin Reed, the Barratt Factory, Wood Green, etc.  In 1926 the partnership ended and Emberton commenced his own practice, still in the same field. Thus in the 1920s his commissions included the Advertising Association's exhibition site in west London and the State Express Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition (1924-5), while in the 1930s his work included shops for Timothy White's, Simpson's in Picadilly, HMV in Oxford Street and the entertainment building at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (1939).

Reference    Staffordshire Sentinel 26 July 1927 page 4
Reference    Staffordshire Sentinel 2 January 1930 page 1  - Obituary Samuel Emberton