Walter Butler StonebridgeFRIBA (8 September 1879 – 1 November 1962) was an architect, Diocesan Surveyor for Ely and St Albans and afterwards Surveyor for the Archdeaconry of Bedford.[1][2][3][4][5] He was president of the Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Society of Architects in 1932.[1]
Early life
Stonebridge was born on 8 September 1879 at Oakley, Bedfordshire, and christened Walter Charles Butler Stonebridge.[6] He was the son of Charles Stonebridge, a Carpenter and Surveyor of Works, and his wife Emily.[7] Stonebridge was educated at Bedford Modern School and then articled to the architectural practice of Messrs Highton and Ardron of Bedford and Westminster between 1895 and 1899.[1][8]
Career
After Highton and Ardron, Stonebridge was an Assistant in the Duke of Bedford's Estate Office, to H. Ban of Maidstone and to John E. Kingham of Aldershot.[1] He commenced independent practice in 1903 in Woburn Sands and Bedford.[1] Following the outbreak of World War I, Stonebridge served with the 1/7West Yorkshire Regiment leaving at the end of the war as a Lance-Corporal.[9]
After the war, Stonebridge became Ecclesiastical Surveyor for the Dioceses of Ely and St Albans and was thereafter Diocesan Surveyor for Bedford.[1] In the latter years of his career in private practice, he worked in partnership with H.A. Harris.[10]
Stonebridge married Jane Winslade on 11 January 1905 at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Hale, Surrey.[12] They had a son, Bernard Butler Stonebridge, and a daughter, Mary Julia Stonebridge.[13][14] His wife predeceased him on 24 December 1961 and Stonebridge died on 1 November 1962 at Barton on Sea in Hampshire.[15]
