Records関係記録

I. Obituary in RIBA Journal, 1897, pp.359-361

   The following memoir of Mr. de Boinville, who was elected Associate in 1882, has been communicated by Mr. Campbell Douglas [F.] (Glasgow) :—

When I was asked by the Secretary to contribute an obituary notice of my friend, I felt that I could not refuse to do so, although the doing it recalls many happy memories which are changed to sadness in the present. His antecedents and his life were not like those of the majority of one’s friends; but as they are interesting I may be excused for saying a little that is beyond the strictly personal.

   He was the representative of a noble family of Lorraine, who took their name from their estate of Boinville. His great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste Chastel de Boinville, became much associated with Lafayette in political matters, and served as aide-de-camp under him. When the Revolution broke out, and the King and Queen were brought from Versailles to Paris, they were escorted by Lafayette, who rode on one side of the carriage, and by De Boinville on the other. Like many other noble unfortunates, Jean Baptiste‘s estates were confiscated by the Revolutionary Government ; but, although he was an aristocrat, he was a reformer, and he lost his life in the Russian Campaign of 1812.

   The subject of our sketch was born at Lisieux—where his father was pastor—in March 1850. After some years Mr. de Boinville was removed to Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine, near the old family home, and subsequently to Cherbourg. Charles Alfred entered the office of the late Mr. William H. White, who at that time was in practice as an architect in Paris, and afterwards became Secretary of the Institute. De Boinville remained with him till the war broke out, and was then called to serve his country, writing many balloon-post letters to his anxious family. the friendship I have just lately lost.

   My first acquaintance with him was in April 1871, when he came to Glasgow, shortly after the conclusion of the war, having, as an officer of the Garde Mobile, been on the defence of Paris during the protracted siege, suffering much hardship, of which he bore signs in his attenuated person. His bed during that severe winter was generally either a plank or the bare ground. Many were the tales he told of the straits to which the defenders were reduced ; his spirit never flagged. The master roots of his life had grown before I had the happiness of making his acquaintance.

   Some of my connections had known his father, and for this reason he came to my house, trusting to get into some good office in Glasgow; but growing interested in some work I was then doing, he entered my office, and stayed in my house for about a year and a half. In this way I came to know him as an architect and to love him as a man.

   At that time my friend Mr. MacVean was in the Civil Service of the Japanese Government, being chief surveyor of the Public Works Department, and having charge of the lighthouses. He had a good deal of building work to do, and so it happened that I was employed to buy for this Department and send out a quantity of fittings and building materials. As his building engagements multiplied, Mr. MacVean requestid me to send him a good architectural draughtsman, and, if possible, one of quick and skilful resources. I engaged young Charles de Boinville for him, who arrived in Tokio in December 1872, and worked under Mr. MacVean for some time. But in 1874 the Japanese Government detached the Survey Department from the Public Works Department and attached it to the Home Ofiice; and when a

head was wanted for the Public Works Building Department, the authorities, having seen the thoroughness of De Boinville's architectural training, selected him, young as he was, for that responsible position. In that service he remained for some eight or nine years, until the

Japanese began gradually to dismiss their foreign assistants when they thought .they could dispense with their services. Mr. MacVean writes to me “that during De Boinville's life in Japan he designed and had charge of many buildings, but that his two chief works were—(1) the Engineering College of Tokio, including the main building. museum, workshops, dormitories, professors' houses, &c., and (2) the New Imperial Palace; both of which would be considered important works even in this country; that in all he did he gave the greatest satisfaction to the Government; that he never heard any one speak evil of him ; and that he was always genial, kindly, and a gentleman.”

   After his return to England, his short life was still a varied one, full of incident, as it had been from the beginning. After a short term of partnership—of which I need say no more than that it did not realise his expectations—he settled down in H.M. Office of Works in Whitehall Place. Here I know his services were very highly appreciated, and I have not infrequently admired the extraordinary thoroughness of the detail drawings prepared there, which I am afraid is more seldom seen in our private practice. The confidence repossd in him there is evidenced by the repeated visits on which he was sent to the foreign Embassies, such as Brussels, Paris, and Lisbon, where he instituted and carried through important works. Indeed, it was on account of his much valued services at Whitehall Place —-or at least

largely a direct result of them—that he was appointed to the honourable position of Surveyor to the India Office by the late Government. Theselast three years, barely, of his life have been too short, and my knowledge of his work there too limited for me to speak of them ; but I know he was much interested in a work which he completed shortly before his death—viz. putting an upper storey of some sixteen apartments over part of the India Office. Carried out during much wet weather, without interrupting any work in the existing rooms—or doing any damage by water—and designed in such a wayas to be invisible from any important point of sight, in my opinion, this work showed his native practical resourcefulness. His knowledge on all matters connected with sanitation was great and inventive, and his

opinion and advice on such matters were sought by some of the principal makers in London.

   His scientific and constructive powers, as well as his business capacity, were of a very high order. His personality was characteristic, uniting the nobility of appearance, the courtesy, refinement, charm, and gracious liveliness of demeanour inherited from his French ancestry, with the generous self-forgetfulness, high probity, and conscientious adherence to duty derived from the maternal side, which was English for three generations. He had gone to Buxton for his Easter holiday, but contracted a chill, which developed pneumonia and internal gout, terminating fatally on Sunday, the 25th April.

II. Competition Records

II. Biography

(1) Dictionary of Scottish Architects

Name: Charles Alfred Chastel de Boinville

Designation: Architect

Born: 1850 Died: 1897

Bio Notes: Charles Alfred Chastel de Boinville was born in 1850 of an old French aristocratic family, and was a pupil of A Guyot from 1862. He worked with Geoffroy of Cherbourg

in 1868, followed by two years in unspecified offices to July 1870. In 1871 he moved to Glasgow in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war where he was employed by

Campbell Douglas & Sellars, shortly to become a partner, and it was probably in his company that James Sellars made his first trip to Paris in 1872. French Beaux-Arts

developments in the work of Hugh and David Barclay and William Leiper suggest Chastel de Boinville may also have assisted in one of these Glasgow practices. On the

strength of his experience he was appointed architect to the Board of Public Works in Japan from 7 October 1873. Whilst there he taught architecture, the first significant

westerner to do so, and he designed The Hall of the Imperial College of Engineering, since demolished; but his aristocratic demeanour, heavily accented English and

somewhat unsystematic teaching resulted in his contract not being renewed and he returned in 1881 to London to set up practice at 2 Westminster Chambers, Victoria

Street. He was admitted ARIBA on 4 January 1882, his proposers being William Henry White, Campbell Douglas and James Piers St Aubyn. Shortly thereafter he was joined in practice by what appears to have been a younger brother, William Chastel de Boinville, who had been articled to James Piers St Aubyn from 1870 to 1875 and

remained as assistant. While at Victoria Street they seem to have been employed in some capacity at the India Office.

His practice in London was merged with that of James Archibald Morris in 1891 but was demerged again c.1893-1895, most probably in 1895 when James Kennedy

Hunter left the Ayr office of Morris to set up practice on his own.

Private and Business Addresses The following private or business addresses are associated with this architect:

Address Type Date from Date to Notes

Glasgow, Scotland Business 1871

Ivedon Cottage, Springfield Road, Kingston on Thames, Surrey, England

Private 1881 * With William Chastel de Boinville

2 Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, London, England  1881 1891 With William Chastel de Boinville 6, Delahay Street, London, England Business 1891

* earliest date known from documented sources.

Employment and Training

Campbell Douglas & Sellars 1871 1872 Partner

Chastel de Boinville & Morris 1891 Partner

RIBA RIBA Proposers

Name Date proposed Notes

Campbell Douglas for Associateship

James Piers St Aubyn for Associateship

William Henry White for Associateship

References

RIBA Journal 1897 London: Royal Institute of British Architects pp359-360

RIBA Journal 1902 London: Royal Institute of British