Venters, John Mackie

Person

Venters, John Mackie

John Mackie Venters, born 23 August 1888, was an apprentice architect when he started Architecture evening classes at The Glasgow School of Art in 1908. He received an Architecture bursary for evening classes from The Haldane Trust.

He lived in Glenburn Street in Port Glasgow. He continued evening classes every year, except one, until 1915 with his tutors including Alexander McGibbon.

From 1910 onwards he is listed as an assistant architect in the GSA Student Registers; according to the Dictionary of Scottish Architects he was working at Stewart, Tough & Alexander in Greenock until November 1910 and then worked at Bryden and Robertson in Glasgow.

In March 1912 he moved to a post in the Caledonian Railway Company Architect's and Engineer's Department in Glasgow.

John Mackie Venters didn't attend classes at The Glasgow School of Art in 1912-13 but returned for two years from 1913 to 1915. By 1914-15 he was living at Radnor Terrace, Sandyford, in Glasgow. In May 1914 he was awarded the School of Architecture Junior Course Certificate.

The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records that he was on First World War service as a topographer and surveyor to the Field Survey Battalion of the Royal Engineers from February 1915 to March 1919, after which he returned to the Caledonian Railway Company.

He moved to another Glasgow architectural firm in 1920, which was also the year he was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects. He then took a post in London before emigrating to Shanghai in China in 1923. He was still there in 1931 but later worked in Singapore and by the 1960s had moved to Toronto in Canada.

See more about his career and the firms he worked for on the Dictionary of Scottish Architects @ http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=203548

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