Leiper, William |
| ARCHITECT, WATERCOLOURIST (SCOTLAND) |
|
BORN 21 May 1839, Glasgow - DIED 27 May 1916, Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire: 2 Upper Sutherland Street CAUSE OF DEATH cardiac haemorrhage GRAVE LOCATION Glasgow: Sighthill Cemetery, Springburn Road |
|
William Leiper was the son of William Leiper, a teacher who ran a small private school. From 1855 to 1859 he was an apprentice at the new architectural firm of Boucher & Cousland in Glasgow. After that he was trained in London by William White (1825-1900) and John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897). In 1856 he worked as project architect for the Findlater Church in Dublin. After returning to Glasgow, he formed a partnership with Robert Grieve Melvin. In 1864 he won the commission to build Dowanhill Church in the Hyndland district. From 1874 the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland gave him several commissions and in Glasgow he worked on several churches and other buildings. He also designed interiors for luxury ships. He gave up architecture for painting for several years, but he returned as an architect in the 1890s. He lost the competition for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow in 1891. For many years he lived at his villa Terpersie in Helensburgh. He died there in 1916 and was buried in the grave of his parents in Sighthill Cemetery in Glasgow. He had designed the grave himself but the statue of an angel by Charles Benham Grassby (1834-1910) from 1864 disappeared in the 1970s. His portrait by Colin Hunter is at the Aberdeen Art Gallery. |
| Images |
 The grave of William Leiper at Sighthill Cemetery in Glasgow. Picture by Androom (02 Jul 2023) |
