Giles Worsley


Giles Arthington Worsley was an English architectural historian, author, editor, journalist and critic, specialising in British country houses. He was the second son of Sir Marcus Worsley of Hovingham Hall, a nephew of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, and died of cancer aged 44.

Family life

Giles Arthington Worsley was born on 22 March 1961 in North Yorkshire, being the second of three sons of Sir Marcus John Worsley, 5th Baronet, and his wife the Hon. Bridget Assheton, a daughter of Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe. His family moved into Hovingham Hall when he was aged 12, after his father inherited the title and estate, which in 2006 was 3,000 acres.
He was educated at Eton College, studied Modern History at New College University of Oxford including architectural history from Howard Colvin, and then in 1983 studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art with his thesis on The Design and Development of the Stable and Riding House in Great Britain from the Thirteenth Century to 1914, which was later reworked into his 2004 book The British Stable. He married Joanna Beaufort Pitman, the writer and The Times, at St George's Church, Hanover Square, London, 21 September 1996, with one of the page boys attending the bride being Edward Windsor, styled Baron Downpatrick, grandson of the Duke of Kent. They had three daughters, Alice Beaufort,, Emma Sylvia,, and Lucy. They lived in North Kensington, London.
Worsley's mother died of cancer on 22 May 2004, and he was diagnosed with cancer in the Spring of 2005. He died in London on 17 January 2006. His funeral took place in Hovingham, North Yorkshire, on 26 January 2006. A service celebrating his life was held in London on 9 March 2006. A memorial plaque was placed at St Clement's Church, North Kensington, London.

Career

Worsley joined Country Life weekly magazine in 1985 as an architectural writer, working for Clive Aslet and Marcus Binney, becoming architectural editor in 1989. In 1994 he left Country Life to take over from Dan Cruickshank as editor of the recently created Perspectives on Architecture monthly magazine, funded by Prince Charles through his Institute of Architecture. In March 1998 Perspectives on Architecture ceased publication after 33 issues and he became the architecture correspondent of The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London, which he continued until his death in 2006. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1999. He became a senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research in 2002, which he also continued until his death in 2006.
In 1988 he won the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Essay Medal. In 1995 his book Classical Architecture in Britain: the Heroic Age won the Yorkshire Post Best Art Book Award.
Honorary Positions held:
The annual Giles Worsley Travel Fellowship was announced in February 2007 by the RIBA and the British School at Rome. The Fellowship is awarded each year to an architect or architectural historian, who then spends three months at the British School at Rome, studying an architectural topic of their choice. Travel, accommodation and board and a monthly stipend is provided. Each Fellow is then required to deliver a public presentation on their return. The first applications were received in February 2008, with the recipient being announced in April.
Recipients and their topics: