The Architect: Dr. MacGregor Chalmers
P. MacGregor Chalmers, LL.D., F.S.A.(Scot.).
Born 14th March, 1859:, died 15th March, 1922.
Dr. MacGregor Chalmers was a genuine student of Scottish medieval art in all its branches, but especially of ecclesiastical art. He had a thorough knowledge of Scottish history and seemed to be able to so saturate himself with the period in which be was working that he did intuitively what the man of that period would have done if he had been face to face with the same problem. One might almost say that he was a re-incarnation of "a Scots medieval architect". Truly he said in the words of Tennyson-
"He is the true cosmopolite who loves his native country best."
His studies of English and Irish architecture, and that of French and German, show that to all of these he could bring the same masterly combination of the student of antiquity, the artist, and the architect who has to solve the problems of the twentieth century. It was a rare combination.
He has left much of which we may well be proud, and, if we had been spared the war, would have left much more, for the work in which he specialised had to be suspended very soon after the year 1914. He was particularly successful in his adaptation of the Norman, or pre-Gothic style, to modern requirements, as many churches scattered throughout the country remain to testify. Even for a simple village church, he showed how effective this style could be.
He was hopeful of showing how grand it could become when realised in cathedral dimensions at Belfast. His drawings of this are very complete, but they remain only a scheme.
His understanding of Celtic art was second to none. Delightful ornament style flowed from his pencil with the greatest apparent ease, and many memorials remain to testify to the rare knowledge and skill of design which were his. His work at Iona Cathedral not only shows this, but also his command of the later phase of Scottish Gothic - the period when architectural style in Scotland became most national. But perhaps the most outstanding example of this style is to be found in Town Church of St. Andrews - a truly remarkable restoration.
Paisley Abbey, the greater work, is a more academic, finer, as befitted the parent shrine of the Royal Stuarts. He always considered the interior of first importance, and often in the case of a simple city church left the exterior almost severely plain, recognising that as Bacon had so well said long ago, the interior was first, and perhaps second and third as well. Neglect of the interior had been the fault with so many of our Scottish churches for so long that it was a delightful change, and Dr MacGregor Chalmers deserves all praise for the many examples of fine interior he has left to us. His ideal was to create buildings which no one could enter without feeling that "this is indeed the house of God, the very gate of heaven," and in this he succeeded.
Adapted from J. Jeffrey Waddell. (Obituary notice from Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.)