Background
Ansell was born in Nottingham in 1872 the son of Henry George and Catherine Ansell. His father was a grocer, and Ansell was educated at Derby School.
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William Ansell
Edit ProfileCareer
He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1940 to 1943, throughout the period of the Blitz. He was articled to a firm of architects in Derby and began his own architectural practice in London in the year 1900. As well as designing buildings, Ansell was also an etcher of architectural subjects.
In 1914 Ansell designed a new Temple of Humanity for the Positivists at Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool, built in brick with patterns in tiles.
lieutenant has a five-bay nave with narrow aisles, a chancel with a canted apse, and a projecting organ loft. The clerestory has Diocletian windows and there is a baldachino with Byzantine columns.
After the War, Ansell returned to his profession. Although not showing notable originality, he designed elegant buildings with modest dignity, specializing in hospitals and convalescent homes.
In 1928 he was elected as President of the Architectural Association School of Architecture.
He chaired the Board of Architectural Education from 1931 to 1933, then was Vice-President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1933 to 1935, and finally was elected President of Royal Institute of British Architects in 1940, continuing until 1943. He led his profession through the most difficult years of the Second World War and was unanimously elected as President for a third year, which had only rarely happened before. He also served as Vice-Chairman of the National Buildings Record, a body created in 1940 to record significant buildings threatened by enemy bombing.
Ansell had married Florence Leman in 1902, she died in 1946.
Ansell died on 11 February 1959.
Achievements
Membership
A member of the Athenæum Club, his office was at 12 Gray"s Inn Square, Gray"s Inn, in the City of London, while his private address in the 1950s was Little Paddock, Seal, Sevenoaks. Member of Master Art ers Guild, 1944.
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Born
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Died
February 11, 1959 (aged 86) -
Nationality
British