Robert Hamilton Paterson


Robert Hamilton Paterson was a Scottish architect and partner in the architectural practice, Hamilton-Paterson and Rhind.

Life

Robert Hamilton Paterson was born at 6 Earl Grey Street Edinburgh in 1843, the son of Thomas Paterson, builder and his wife Margaret Instant. His older brother, John Paterson, also became an architect, as did his cousin Robert Paterson.
, Edinburgh. Reconstruction, new brewery and maltings, Robert Hamilton Paterson architect, 1892|right
Robert Hamilton Paterson was educated at the celebrated Hamilton Academy school and thereafter was articled to the architect James Turner’s branch office at Hamilton. Paterson was then to further his experience working at Edinburgh and with the famous London firm, Cubitt & Co.
Marrying Elizabeth Cullen in Hamilton in 1870, the couple moved to Edinburgh where Paterson established his practice, executing major works for brewers, malters and warehouse-men, including design of the Abbey, James Calder & Co., Castle, Holyrood, Drybrough’s, Caledonian and Clydesdale Breweries; and also work for McVitie and Price. He was also, for some twenty-five years, to hold the post of architect and surveyor to the Police Commissioners of the County of Lanark.
Having developed his practice, in 1898 Paterson took into partnership Thomas Duncan Rhind, the practice being renamed Hamilton-Paterson & Rhind. The partnership was to execute important projects such as the Queen Victoria Memorial at Liverpool and the Royal Scots War Memorial in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.
This partnership was dissolved in 1905 and Paterson took into partnership his nephew Thomas Tolmie Paterson, son of his older brother John, but the partnership was short-lived due to bad times in the building sector and the increasingly ill-health of Robert Hamilton Paterson who died, aged 67, in 1911.