Colonel Willam Hornby Hatchard Smith TD was a well-known local architect who designed more than fifty buildings in this locality.  These included the Public Hall, and he was involved with the alteration of many others.  He was born in Epsom Surrey to John Hatchard Smith and his wife Frances Mary (nee Newsam).   

His father John Hatchard Smith was born in Blackheath but was presumably of Scottish ancestry as he appears in a Dictionary of Scottish Architects (1).  He started the practice J Hatchard-Smith & Son and they had offices in London (11 Haymarket) and Epsom, and later at Budleigh Salterton.  They had three daughters Hilda (1879), Violet (1880) and Sybil (1883) followed by their only son William Hornby (17th January 1887). 

The children had a governess at home in their earlier years but William was sent to Charterhouse School which he left in 1904 (2).  He received training as an architect in his father’s practice and became ARIBA in 1914 and FRIBA in 1923 (1) but at the same time he pursued a military career in the Territorial Army.  

Prior to the 1914-18 War he served in The Artists’ Rifles and Inns of Court Officer Training Corps which was a volunteer force.  Following the outbreak of the War several members of the Artists’ Rifles were selected to be officers in other units.  He was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant into the 5th Battalion East Surrey Regiment on 31st August 1914 and on the 29th October the 1/5th Battalion sailed for India reaching Bombay on the 1st December.  

The battalion was posted to several cantonments on garrison duties.  He was promoted to temporary 1st Lieutenant in September 1916 and in 1917 was appointed Staff Captain 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st (Peshawar) Division.  Later he was DAQMG (Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General) of 4th (Quetta) Division.  

He was sent with the Battalion to Mesopotamia in December 1917 for the rest of the war. They arrived in Basra on the 27th after spending Christmas Day in the Persian Gulf.  On October 11th 1918 they left Samarra to take part in the final operations against the Turks which resulted in their surrender on 30th October.  In 1918 he became adjutant of the 1/5th Battalion and after the War in January 1920 he rejoined the reconstituted 5th Battalion, which was a Territorial Unit, at the rank of Acting Captain.  In April 1924 he was promoted to Major and appointed to command the Battalion in April 1930.  At the end of his period of command he was promoted to Brevet Colonel (3,4,5).  An appreciation of his military service is contained in the Journal of the East Surrey Regiment Vol. 3 November 1933. 

William Hatchard Smith became a partner in his father’s practice and he married Margaret Blake Thompson in late 1929 in London (St. Martin). Also in 1929 he was commissioned by Margaret’s father, an American millionaire Mr Blake Thompson, to build “Watch Hill”, 3 Cricketfield Lane in Budleigh Salterton. William and Margaret later lived in the house themselves. During the pre-Second World War period he designed or altered several houses in the area (see the list below), and the firm of J. Hatchard Smith & Son had an office in the town from 1924 onwards (6).   

During the war the house was a refuge for foreign servicemen who had nowhere to go on leave.  From 1939 to the late 1970s as many as 1,500 servicemen from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the U.S.A were invited to “Watch Hill”, and they included a future Prime Minister of Australia, Mr R.J.L. (Bob) Hawke.  Their guest books are in the library at the Fairlynch Museum.  After the war this hospitality was extended to Rhodes’ scholars in particular.   

William Hornby Hatchard Smith spent the last years of his life at St. Cecilia’s Nursing Home, although his chauffeur and general handyman Robin Dyer picked him up regularly and took him back home to read in his library or for a drive in the country.  He died at the age of 100 on the 9th October 1987. His wife had predeceased him on the 18th December 1971.  “Watch Hill” was sold a year after his death. 

Further more detailed information about his life can be found at the Fairlynch Museum in an album compiled by Dr Anita Jennings(6), whose husband had known WHS for fifty years and she herself had known him for over twenty. 

(1)www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_list.php?alpha=h

(2)Charterhouse Register 1872-1910

(3)Supplement to London Gazette 20th January 1920

(4)http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/militia_vol_territorial/mvt17_1.html

(5)http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/colonels_and_co/commanding_officers/east_surrey/037.html

(6)“Watch Hill & Col. W.H. Hatchard-Smith TD, FRIBA 1887-1987” Yellow Folder in Local History Room at Fairlynch Museum 

HATCHARD SMITH WORK in the BUDLEIGH AREA

Accession numbers, where applied, are in brackets after the entry. 

Dr Anita Jennings has provided me with the background of the material stored at Fairlynch. Before he died, William Hatchard Smith left lots of plans of his houses with Miss Joy Gawne (his next door neighbour for 30 years).  About eight years ago, Michael Bland (architect) and Dr Jennings worked sorting and cataloguing the plans. Morton Taylor (also an architect) and Glyn Whittle went through a considerable amount of correspondence and notes from his office and kept anything of value, and Ann Hack sorted and filed the material.  Along with Miss Joy Gawne they all arranged for its safe storage.  Glyn Whittle and Bob Hack in addition visited the properties and interviewed the owners and Bob took several photographs, which are stored at the Museum, and a list of these is appended at the end of this section. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS 

1.Budleigh Salterton Public Hall 1925 (1989.4.2)

2.St. Peter’s Church: Font, Altar Rails etc. (1989.4.2)

3.Budleigh Salterton Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (1989.4.4)

4.Tea Room,Tennis Club (1989.4.77.3)

5.Hut for Girl Guides

6.Shandford (Home for the Elderly), Station Road, conversion of existing house and addition of a matron’s house (1989.4.6 & 1989.4.77.2)

7.Rosemullion Hotel, alterations (1989.4.1) 

PRIVATE RESIDENCES   

Some of the house names have changed once or more times since the accession of their plans.

Before 1923 

8.“Wildflowers”, 21 East Budleigh Road (1989.4.48; ON 87) built for his sister Mrs Violet Rowlandson

9.“Heatherlands”, 13 Links Road (1989.4.64) for Colonel Burden

10.“Reed Thatch”, 6 Vales Road for Miss K Richardson (1989.4.50) 

1923 to 1926 

11. “Heath End”, 10 Northview Road (1989.4.23; ON 44) for Major Orme.

12. “Ben Aros”, 10 Lansdowne Road and “Heath Cottage”, 8 Lansdowne Road (1989.4.36) for Mr H.C. Bennett

13. “Ridge End”, 1 Westfield Close (1989.4.76.5; ON 115) for Mrs Sutcliff Edmunds

14. “Lawnside”, Westfield Road (probably now 11a & 11b) for Miss E.M. Chamberlain (1990.91)

15. “Lavenderhay”, 9 Moorlands Road for Mr A.C.G.Roberts 

16. “Caughley”, 10 Upper Stoneborough Lane for Mr H.J. McIntosh(?; ON 81)

17. “Edradynate”, 6 East Terrace (1989.4.7)

18. “Grasslands”, 7 Knowle Road for Miss Violet Owen (NP – ON 16 or 39; cf. “Ottercombe”)

19. “Lace Acre”, 1 Boucher Road (possibly 1989.4.78; ON 38)

20. “Little Garth”, Ting Tong for Mr A.C. Nuttall (1989.4.41)

21. “Tahuna”, 29 Exmouth Road for Dr F.W. Goodhue (1989.4.67)

22. “Moneens” (renamed “Homewath”). 11 Moorlands Road for Captain Hawkes-Cornock (1989.4.35)

23. “Hedges”, 4 & 6 Sherbrook Hill for Colonel Couchman (1989.4.27)

24. “Kenmure”, 18 Copp Hill Lane for Miss Lane (1989.4.56; ON 24)

25. “Silhari” now “Greenacres”, 10 Moorlands Road for Colonel Stokes (1989.4.34; ON 17)

26. “Braemoray”, Ting Tong for Major F.L.Bennett (1989.4.43)

27. “Round Hill”, 11 Knowle Road for J.H.Teale (1989.4.39)

28. “White House” (later called “Glewstone” & now “Woodland Grange”) built for G. Roberts (1989.4.18 & 1989.4.20)

29. “Down-Along”, 96 Granary Lane for Colonel E.E.Ellery (1989.4.53)

30. “Langbrae”, 12 Moorlands Road probably built for Sydney Couper 

1930-1935 

31. “Nairn”, 20 Copp Hill Lane (re-named “Manamet”) built for Major Sutherland (1989.4.57; ON 40)

32. “Coppledown”, 11 Bedlands Lane for Miss I.C.Hogg  (1989.4.45) now 4 flats

33. “Rose Ash”, 9 Westfield Road for Miss L. Southcombe (1989.4.11; ON 57)

34. “Little Bridge”, 31 Knowle Road for Dr F.S.Walker

35. “Exton” (re-named “Waye”), 23 East Budleigh Road for Miss M. Dane Warren (1989.4.47; ON 34) 

1935-1938 

36. “Half-Acre”, 19 Copp Hill Lane for Miss C. Melhuish  (1989.4.58; ON 116?)

37. “Caledon”, 5 Westbourne Terrace (some confusion but probably 1984.4.79 commissioned by Miss Deas, & ON 35)

38. “Beechcroft”, 6 Cliff Terrace for Captain Mulleneux (1989.4.8; ON 123)

39. “Inner Ting Tong”, for Mr Tudor Owen (1989.4.42) 

After 1939 

40. “Smarts Hill”, 9 Sherbrook Hill (some confusion about the plans as they don’t fit the house floor plan)

41. “Maylands”, 4 Mansfield Terrace (1989.4.51)

42. “Upper Sherbrook”, 13 Sherbrook Hill for Mr R.W.Hooper (1989.4.26)

43. “Clover Cottage”, 3 Moorlands Road for Lieutenant Colonel Andrews M.C.  (1989.4.30; ON 100)

44. “Hillfields”, 1 Moorlands Road for Miss Joan E. Warren in 1958 

45. “Norman Lodge” re-named “Kincraigie” for Mrs Thorneycroft

46. Bungalow at 31 Copp Hill Lane for Mrs Phillips 

In addition there are miscellaneous drawings of work in Budleigh and elsewhere, and the full list is available at the Fairlynch Museum.  

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF HATCHARD SMITH HOUSES STORED AT FAIRLYNCH MUSEUM 

BULFM:1995.124.2  -  “Glewstone House”, Exmouth Road, Budleigh Salterton, showing front and side with greenhouse. Colour.

BULFM:1995.124.3  -  Close up of side view of “Woodpeckers”, Northview Road, Exmouth Road, Budleigh Salterton. Gentleman in garden.

BULFM:1995.124.4  -  Front and side view of “Woodpeckers”,  Northview Road, Exmouth Road, Budleigh Salterton.

BULFM:2004.1774  -   Col Hatchard Smith, detailed house plans of a house designed by him. Ground floor plan 1988. Colour. 14 8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1775  -  Col. Hatchard Smith, detailed plans of a house designed by him 1988 Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1776  -  Col. Hatchard Smith, plans for the public hall (photographed). 1988. Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1777  -  Col. Hatchard Smith, detailed aspect of the public hall (photographed) 1988 Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1778  -  Col. Hatchard Smith, house "Mayen" plans (photographed) 1988 Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM 2004.1779  -  Col Hatchard Smith, house "Mayen" - detailed aspect (photographed). 1988. Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM-2004 1780  -  Col Hatchard Smith designed house "Wildflowers", one of his earliest buildings, for his sister Mrs Rowlandson. 1988. Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1781  -  Col Hatchard Smith house, Little Garth, built 1920's 1988 Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1782  -   Col Hatchard Smith house, "Whitewater House", built 1920's 1988 Colour 14 8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1783  -  Col. Hatchard Smith house, "Inner Ting Tong", car parked on driveway 1988. Colour. 14 8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1784  -  Col Hatchard Smith house plans - photographed by the owners (1988). Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM 2004.1785  -  Col. Hatchard Smith house “Silhari”, now Greenacres, No.10 Moorlands Road. Steps leading up to front entrance. 1988 Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1786  -  Col. Hatchard Smith house, back view, “Silhari”, now Greenacres, No. 10 Moorlands Road. 1988 Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1787  -  Col. Hatchard Smith house, 'Nairn' No. 20 Copp Hill Lane (re-named “Marmanet”). 1988. Colour 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1788  -  Col Hatchard Smith house, 18 Copp Hill Lane - back view. 1988. Colour. 14.8 x 10 cm.

BULFM:2004.1789  -  Col Hatchard Smith house, “Dunthorne”, 24 Copp Hill Lane taken through the trees. Probably the last house built by H-S. 1988. Colour 14.8x10cm.

BULFM:2007.1442  -  Front view of “Heath Cottage” designed by Col. Hatchard Smith  9Sept. 1989. 15 x 10cm.

BULFM:2007.1443  -  Back view of “Heath Cottage”, and garden, architect Col. Hatchard Smith  Sept. 1989 15 x 10cm.

 

Compiled by Roger Lendon, © 2010

 

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