Bill McAllister: Should there be celebration to mark centenary of war memorial?
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THIS year marks the centenary of the official unveiling of the Inverness War Memorial in Cavell Gardens.
The architect responsible was James Hinton Gall and this is also the 150th anniversary of his coming to Inverness and proceeding to roll out an important body of work spanning 50 years.
Gall is relatively unknown, compared with the great Sir Alexander Ross, but he merits better recognition for the legacy he leaves behind.
When he died, aged 80, in January 1929, the Courier described him as “the oldest and most noted bowler and curler in the capital of the Highlands”.
Born in 1848, he became an articled apprentice to Edinburgh architect William Ormiston in 1864 and later became assistant architect in several of the firm’s offices.
In 1872, Gall came north as principal assistant to William Lawrie of Matthews and Lawrie, Inverness, and one of his first responsibilities was to take charge of the building of the Highland Railway company’s offices in Station Square.
He played a key role helping James Matthews to create Inverness Town House, beginning in 1875, the same year Gall completed Merkinch Public School in Telford Road. Two years later he built Aigas House, near Beauly.
When Lawrie died in 1887 and Matthews retired, Gall inherited the practice, operating it in his own name. He reconstructed the Royal Northern Infirmary and refurbished the Theatre Royal in Bank Street – burned down in 1931 – while in Nairn he built the Imperial Hotel and expanded the Royal Marine Hotel.
Having been closely involved in its original construction Gall was the obvious choice for the contract to alter and expand Inverness Town House in 1894, which included the council chamber we know today.
Business premises in Eastgate followed and the architect played his part as the ‘Crown Lands’ on the hill was developed for elegant homes. Gall built a villa there and two semi-detached villas in Lower Drummond in 1895 with two more ‘Crown Lands’ villas two years later.
Outwith Inverness, he built Drumnadrochit Hotel, Aultbea Hotel and Golspie’s Lawson Memorial Hospital as well as expanding Hawkhill House, Rosemarkie.
In 1900, he oversaw the tasteful restoration of Inverness Mercat Cross, which had fallen in to disrepair. Nairn man Sir Robert Finlay, MP for Inverness and Solicitor General in the British government, offered to pay for the project and councillors consented to it being located outside the Town House.
In Academy Street, Gall built a bakery for John Sinclair and a private house, followed by major improvements to property in Grant’s Close and Baron Taylor’s Lane.
Gall, who opened new offices in Lombard Street in 1911 for his busy practice, carried out refurbishment to Merkinch Public School in 1914, 39 years after he’d built it.
Winning a design competition for an Inverness War Memorial, he began the project in 1921 and it was officially opened in December 1922. Shouldn’t there be a centenary celebration for Gall’s enduring landmark?
In 1922, he won a further competition to create a Stornoway War Memorial and this was completed two years later.
Gall had been successfully proposed in 1911 for membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
He was 79 when he applied for a RIBA Fellowship, which was granted several months later.
In January the following year, the death occurred of the man who had now lived half a century in Inverness and become one of its best-known and admired personalities, as well as a keen sportsman.
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