Prior The Man
In many ways Prior fits the stereotype of a privileged late 19th Century ex public school boy, barrister's son and Cambridge Blue. His bullying, playful manner are well recorded:
| “ | On Saturdays Mr Shaw did not come to his office he worked at home. So just before the hour when the clerks were due to leave Mr Prior got hold of some brown paper and string and also of Frederick O’Neil (Shaw’s latest pupil) and tied him up in a brown paper parcel and put him on Ma Heaton’s Hall Table. It was found later in the day who happened to pass through the hall.. | ” |
| “ | One day Mr Prior when on his way to the Office was caught in heavy driving rain without an overcoat. So his trousers were drenched through and through. He took them off..... When Mr Shaw happened to come into the office later on, he was startled to see a pair of legs dangling from Mr Prior’s stool. | ” |
However underlying the argumentative and bullying façade lurked an artist and scholar. He was and remained a Tory throughout his life, perhaps explaining his lack of interest in social housing and the garden city movement. Yet he was close friends with the socialist Lethaby and a strong opponent of the professionalisation of architecture and believed that the architect should merely facilitate the work of craftsmen. In his long academic career he aimed to produce a "world of builders, who would build with the direct knowledge of working conditions".
His obituary in the Architect and Building News perhaps best summed him up:
And he could be something of a grizzly old bear at times, for he was pertinacious and his opinion once formed was hardly to be changed. To hear an argument — and we have heard several – between Prior and Leonard Stokes was an education. Yet it was a kindly bear withal, that would emerge, honours divided, from a wordy warfare with a joyous twinkle in its eye; and for any small personal attention or service, it could be immensely grateful and appreciative.
He remained as Slade Professor until his death from cancer on 19 August 1932. He was buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary’s Church, Apuldram. Few of his friends remained, Lethaby, Newton, and Horsley were all dead, and none of his former architectural colleagues attended his funeral.
Read more about this topic: Edward Schroeder Prior
Famous quotes containing the words prior and/or man:
“To John I owed great obligation;
But John, unhappily, thought fit
To publish it to all the nation:
Sure John and I are more than quit.”
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721)
“If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)