Newspaper Article

Obituary: Viscount Esher: Architect and administrator who calmed the Royal College of Art

Gadney, Reg

2004

Overview

After gaining scholarships to Eton and New College, Oxford, where, in 1935, he took first-class honours in history, [Esher] served during the war in the Royal Artillery and was mentioned in dispatches. In 1945, as Major Esher, he stood unsuccessfully as Liberal candidate for South Oxfordshire. Brooding on what he called his \"over-developed sense of failure\", he turned his attentions to town planning and, in 1949, was appointed architect planner to Hatfield new town, in Hertfordshire. The day his appointment was announced, one tutor asked if someone could list his qualifications for the job. Sir Hugh Casson said that Esher had achieved a fine Oxford degree, but was unable to recall the subject. Sir Misha Black announced that Esher had fathered many children, which no one felt able to comment upon. The appointment was made. Rejecting all these proposals, Esher commissioned some of the more liberal staff members to negotiate with the occupiers. The peace talks rambled far and wide - from Marxism-Leninism to the case of a student who, having arrived as a man from the far east, turned into a woman. A trade union delegate declared that her members would \"down tools\" if the transsexual was allowed to use the women's lavatories. Esher kept his head, and the debacle petered out.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Brett, Lionel Gordon Baliol / Darwin, Robin