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Francis Rattenbury, 1867-1935 Architect - Biography
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Francis Rattenbury as Reeve of Oak Bay, Victoria, circa 1910

Francis Rattenbury as Reeve of Oak Bay, Victoria, circa 1910
Oak Bay Archives

Signature of Francis Rattenbury
City of Victoria Archives
99608-01


Talent, pride and tragedy

The life of Francis Mawson Rattenbury reads like fiction. An architect whose
work defined the Victoria skyline, he left a legacy of great public buildings in the capital city of British Columbia. He won his first prestigious commission
there — the Parliament Buildings — at the age of 25 and then began a 30-year
cycle of creativity.

Brilliant and ambitious, Rattenbury conceived the emerging city as a single
integrated design. His public and corporate buildings work as grand visual statements. His reign as British Columbia’s most exalted architect ended with a return to England in 1929, where his career collapsed in the shadow
of marital scandal, financial ruin and, finally, death by murder.

quote I suppose you got the sketches for the proposed Hotel at Victoria.
It is going to be a whopper if it goes on, and I think it will go on alright.
It will make a decided attraction to Victoria, as we really have wanted
a first-class hotel. quote

Francis Rattenbury letter to his mother, 1903

Signature of Francis Rattenbury

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