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James Beattie Michie
(1891–1960)
Though born in Inverness, James Michie was from a family firmly based in Hawick. He attended school there, and thereafter
was apprenticed to an architectural practice, Alan Hopkirk, in that town. My father joined the army in 1914 when war broke
out and served in the Royal Scots Regiment. Several years were spent on the Western Front, and he was then despatched to
India, serving in the 54th Sikh Regiment.
Married in 1920 to Anne Redpath, he was apprenticed that year to the War Graves Commission, and joined other,
mainly young, architects under the direction of Edwin Lutyens, tasked in the design and layout of the many war cemeteries,
big and small, that were spread about in the north-east corner of France. My father’s interest in painting can be seen
developing at that time, and the landscape, often featuring a windmill, became a subject of attraction. An interest in painting
remained throughout his life. This was not particularly unusual for an architect. Charles Rennie Mackintosh and others have
shown much skill and achievement in painting.
Moving to the south of France in the late 20’s, my father became a private architect to a wealthy American, Charles
Thompson, who had bought a large villa, he named Chateau Gloria, at St Jean on Cap Ferrat, adjacent to Villefranche.
He carried out a number of projects – a loggia, a swimming pool in the large garden of the estate, and other projects within
the chateau. In 1931 he was commissioned to paint two murals in the Chapelle St Roseline at a Carthusian Monastery,
Chartreuse Notre-Dame de Montrieux, situated in wooded country about 30 kilometres north of Toulon.
Thompson lost much of his wealth during the years following the 1929 crash and in 1934 he sold the chateau,
returning to America, and the Michie family moved back to Hawick. Employment prospects at this time were bleak, but
my father was fortunate to be appointed to a prominent architecture practice, Charles Holden and Partners, in London.
When war broke out in 1939, he volunteered to join the army and was placed in the Gloucestershire Regiment and, no doubt
because of his Scottish background, was appointed as requisitioning officer for the Borders. He spent the war years based
in Galashiels, attending to the needs of the thousands of soldiers who required billeting in the Borders region. He had time
to make paintings, surprisingly. After the war he was appointed as a lecturer at the West of England School of Architecture
in Bristol. He balanced his time teaching architecture to his students and making paintings, and held exhibitions there.
It was a varied life with different experiences. Making paintings was a constant thread.
David Michie
April 2012
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