Ninian Comper

Ninian Comper
Born	10 June 1864(1864-06-10) Aberdeen
Died	22 December 1960(1960-12-22) (aged 96) Clapham
Nationality	British
Work
Practice	Bucknall & Comper

Sir John Ninian Comper (1864–1960) was a Scottish-born architect. He was one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects, noted for his churches and their furnishings. He is well-known for his stained glass, his use of colour and his subtle integration of Classical and Gothic elements.

Career

Comper was born in Aberdeen, the eldest of five children of Ellen Taylor of Hull and the Reverend John Comper, Rector of St Margaret of Scotland. He was educated at Glenalmond School in Perthshire and attended a year at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. On moving to London, he was articled to Charles Eamer Kempe, and later to George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner. His fellow-Scot William Bucknall took him into partnership in London in 1888 and Ninian was married to Grace Bucknall in 1890. Bucknall and Comper remained in partnership until 1905.

His ecclesiastical commissions include a line of windows in the north wall of the nave of Westminster Abbey; at St Peter's Parish Church, Huddersfield baldachino/ciborium, high altar and east window in memory of the dead of the Great War; St Mary's, Wellingborough; St Michael and All Angels, Inverness; the Lady Chapel at Downside Abbey, Somerset; the ciborium and House Chapel extension for the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Oxford (now St Stephen's House, Oxford) and St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, London; the Lady Chapel at St Matthew's, Westminster. Comper is noted for re-introducing the 'English altar', an altar surrounded by riddel posts. Comper designed a number of remarkable altar screens (reredos), inspired by medieval originals. Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, has one of the finest examples.

Reredos in Wymondham Abbey, designed by Comper

Only one major ecclesiastical work of Comper's is in the United States, the Leslie Lindsey Chapel of Boston's Emmanuel Church (Episcopal). The work is an all-encompassing product of and testimony to Comper's design capability, comprising the entire decorative scheme of the chapel designed by the architectural firm of Allen & Collins. Comper designed its altar, altar screen, pulpit, lectern, dozens of statues, all its furnishings and appointments, and most notably the stained glass windows. For all the other work the finest Gothic-revival style craftsmen were engaged, the project under the direction of Campbell, Aldrich and Nulty of Boston. The chapel memorializes Leslie Lindsey and Stewart Mason, her husband of ten days, who were married at Emmanuel Church and perished when the Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915.

From 1912 Ninian and Grace lived in London at The Priory, Beulah Hill, a house designed by Decimus Burton (1800–81), where he entertained friends such as John Betjeman. He had a studio nearby at Knights Hill, close to the Gothic Cemetery of West Norwood. After the studio was destroyed in World War II it was relocated to a building in his garden, which had previously been used by his son, Nicholas Comper (1897–1939), to design aircraft.^[1]

Comper was knighted by King George VI in 1950.

On 22 December 1960 he died in The Hostel of God (now Trinity Hospice) in Clapham. After a private cremation his ashes were interred beneath the windows he designed in Westminster Abbey.^[2]

Footnotes

1. ^ Sir Ninian Comper in Norwood The Norwood Society
2. ^ Obituary, Sir Ninian Comer, The Times, Friday 23 December 1960

References

• Anonymous (2009). Lindsey Chapel: Its History & Architecture. Boston, MA: Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston. 
• Symondson, A.; Bucknall, S. (2006). Sir Ninian Comper. Spire Books. 

External links

• "Basic Biographical Details: (Sir) John Ninian Comper". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100258. Retrieved 23 February 2010. 
• "Basic Biographical Details: Bucknall & Comper". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200370. Retrieved 23 February 2010. 
• "Huddersfield Parish Church History". Huddersfield Parish Church. http://www.huddersfieldparishchurch.org/history.htm. Retrieved 23 February 2010. 
• "The Comper Jewel in the Highlands of Scotland". The Church of St Michael and All Angels. http://www.angelforce.co.uk/stmichael/comper.html. Retrieved 23 February 2010. 
• "The history of Sir Ninian Comper and his association with the Sisters of Bethany". http://www.sistersofbethany.org.uk/NinianComper.php. Retrieved 23 February 2010. ^{[dead link]}
• "Westminster Abbey stained glass windows - the nave". http://www.westminster-abbey.org/tour/stain_glass/nave.htm#theroyal. Retrieved 23 February 2010. ^{[dead link]}

Persondata
Name	Comper, Ninian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	10 June 1864
Place of birth	Aberdeen
Date of death	22 December 1960
Place of death	Clapham