It was the Festival of Britain in 1951 which thrust Hugh Casson, who died on August 15th, aged 89, into the limelight. He never left it.
A small, mercurial figure, he was an architect in practice who wrote extensively on architecture for both the general and professional press. He had had experience of camouflage work during the second World War and of small architectural projects and exhibition work, but not much more. Nevertheless, Gerald Barry, the festival's director-general, chose him to be the festival's director of architecture.
It was a job he tackled with zest, demonstrating his manifold capabilities to a large and potentially critical audience. His accomplishment in bringing everything to a successful conclusion earned him a knighthood in the New Year's honours of 1952.
He was born in London, his mother having travelled from Burma for the birth. His father, Randal, had been a scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained a first-class degree in mathematics, entering the Indian Civil Service only because he saw no future as an astronomer. (Randal's brother, Lewis, became the distinguished actor-director and husband of Sybil Thorndike.)
After an undistinguished sojourn at Eastbourne College and failure to get a classics scholarship to St John's, Hugh Casson decided to read architecture there instead. Like his father, he graduated with a first-class degree and, in his case, the Craven Scholarship, which enabled him to spend three months at the British School in Athens.
Completing his architectural training at the Bartlett School in London, he then worked for his Cambridge tutor, Christopher Nicholson, who not only helped him expand his already wide circle of friends so that it included the slightly raffish world of the artistic community in 1930s London, but acted as mentor and guide.
Nicholson's sense of humour matched his own, and people who worked in their office remember it being filled with laughter, particularly during the time they worked on Monkton House for the surrealist patron Edward James, with Salvador Dali acting as his adviser. During the second World War, Hugh Casson worked for the Camouflage Service of the Air Ministry. It was a job which perfectly suited his creative skills, and he and his wife Margaret - a fellow architect he had met when they were students - settled into a village near Cheltenham where he was based. He did his job conscientiously, but it was always supplemented by other pursuits. He wrote knowledgeably for professional publications (he was a long-term contributor to the Architectural Press) in a way that was interesting and accessible for the lay press, illustrating many of his articles with his own sketches. In whatever spare time was available, he lectured at Cheltenham Art School.
After the war, the Cassons returned to London and following a short spell at the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, he resumed practice with Nicholson until the call came in 1948 to join the Festival of Britain team. He expected to return to the small firm they had established.
Tragically, Nicholson was killed in a gliding accident just before he started his festival work. With typical swift-footedness Hugh Casson asked the young architect, Neville Conder, to keep the practice going until his return.
In fact, despite being senior partner at Casson Conder, he never returned to full-time practice. After the festival he established an interior design department at the Royal College of Art, where he stayed, with his wife as senior tutor, until his retirement in 1975. Almost immediately he stepped in to the presidency of the Royal Academy of Art. From his perch on his secretary's desk (he never had one of his own), he persuaded fellow academicians that it was time to open the place to a wider public (one solution was to form the Friends of the Royal Academy in 1977), to seek sponsorship and to extend the exhibitions programme.
These are the bare bones of Hugh Casson's life. It was fleshed out with innumerable other activities. He was, above all, an architect. New buildings for Cambridge University at Sidgwick Avenue, offices for the General Dental Council, headquarters for WH Smith and the National Westminster Bank, interiors for the new SS Canberra, the elephant house at London Zoo, and the Ismaili Centre at South Kensington are among Casson Conder projects.
At a personal level, he started working for the royal family soon after the Festival of Britain finished. Over the years, he designed private apartments at Buckingham Palace and Windsor, advised on alterations at Sandringham, and designed the state rooms and private apartments on the royal yacht Britannia. His contribution to the world of committees and commissions was increasing and ran like a thread through his other work. He was on the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1960-1983, a member of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, a trustee of the British Museum and of the National Portrait Gallery, and on the Council of the National Trust. The lightness and humour with which he approached these commitments was deceptive; his contribution was informed by a steely intellect which ensured the value of his comments.
He never considered himself an important artist. But he was a prolific and accomplished water colourist. Anyone who knew him has one, probably more, of his works, because the notes of thanks, commiseration or congratulation which he wrote in profusion were each decorated with a small painting. These were charming, witty, and of instantly recognisable provenance.
To his delight, this skill brought him commissions from Glyndebourne (where water colours of his set designs sold within days), the Royal Opera House and several theatre companies. He wrote and illustrated a number of successful books, including, in more recent years, Hugh Casson's Diary, Hugh Casson's London, Hugh Casson's Oxford and Hugh Casson's Cambridge. He filled his life with activity to an almost insupportable extent, yet he always had time for more. His wife Margaret, Moggie as he called her, was a never failing presence and support in the background. In an effort at control, she was known to write "No" in large letters on envelopes of invitation before he had even opened them. No one, however insignificant in worldly terms, got swept aside for lack of time. As many a struggling student or artist will affirm, Hugh Casson made time for everyone.
He is survived by his wife Margaret, and their three daughters.
Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson: born 1910; died August, 1999