Alfred Bossom, Baron Bossom

Alfred Charles Bossom, Baron Bossom FRIBA (6 October 1881 – 4 September 1965) was an English architect active in the United States, and Conservative Party politician.

Bossom was born in Islington, London, to Alfred Henry and Amelia Jane (Hammond) Bossom. He was educated at Charterhouse School, and studied architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Royal Academy of Arts before leaving for the United States in 1903 to work for Carnegie Steel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and on the restoration of Fort Ticonderoga in 1908. In 1910 he married Emily, daughter of New York City banker, Samuel Bayne, and they had three sons.

As an architect with offices at 680 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, Bossom specialized in the efficient construction of skyscrapers. While based in New York City he designed a number of major works in Texas, including the American Exchange National Bank (1918), and the Magnolia-Mobil Petroleum Building (1922), both in Dallas. Bossom's Dallas work on the Maple Terrace Apartments (1924-25), and the expansion and renovation of the Adolphus Hotel, were done with local architects Thomson and Swaine. Bossom also designed the United States National Bank (1924) in Galveston; and the Petroleum Building (1925-26) in Houston.

His practice also designed a number of large houses, notable examples of which include the Henry Devereux Whiton house in Hewlett, New York, additions to the Joseph Harriman house in Brookville, New York, and the remarkable Edward Howland Robinson Green estate in Round Hill, Massachusetts.

At the height of his career in 1926, Bossom returned to England with his family, determined that his children should be educated there. Entirely detached from his architectural career, he began a new life of public service and was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone at the 1931 general election. He held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1959 general election, having taken time out during World War II to serve in the British Home Guard. Bossom's wife had died in an aircrash in 1932 and he was remarried to another American, Elinor Dittenhofer in 1934, but they were divorced in 1947.

He was President of the Anglo-Baltic Society.

In 1952 he was made an honorary Doctor of Law by the University of Pittsburgh, was made a Baronet, of Maidstone in the County of Kent in 1953 and received a life peerage as Baron Bossom, of Maidstone in the County of Kent in 1960. Bossom died in London in 1965 and as his title was a life peerage, it became extinct upon his death, although his hereditary baronetcy passed to his only surviving child, Clive (his eldest and youngest sons had died in 1932 and 1959 respectively).

Winston Churchill joked, when introduced to Bossom, "Who is this man whose name means neither one thing nor the other?"

Selected works

* "An Architectural Pilgrimage in Old Mexico", Charles Scribner's, 1924.
* "Building to the Skies: The Romance of the Skyscraper", 1934.

References

* Dennis Sharp, ed., "Alfred C. Bossom's American Architecture, 1903-1926", London: Book Art, 1984.
* Robert B. MacKay, "Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940", W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. ISBN 0393038564.
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbozl.html The Handbook of Texas Online]