Ian Handford: Highly regarded architect whose creativity gave us the Cenotaph

Edwin was the eleventh child of fourteen of Captain Charles Henry Augustus Lutyens and Mary Gallwey was born on the 29th March 1869. His father, a Captain had contributed to the advancement of Army musketry and privately was known as a painter of horses. Later his son would equally be innovative, becoming an architect of real merit.

Family friend Sir Landseer would offer to adopt Edwin but Mary declined although she did consent to having her child named "Edwin Landseer". Educated at home Edwin later regretted this having not received a public education believing it accentuated his shyness. In his teens he always showed a tendency towards drawing by "using his eyes" which became an invaluable skill. He attended the Royal College of Art at Kensington and there his earliest designs of a church saw him win a first prize.

Residing at Thursley in Surrey he drew the alterations at the village shop in 1888 which formally led to a commission for a cottage. Much later after he set up an architects practise at Grays Inn at age twenty he was acquainted with notables like Philip Webb and Gertrude Jekyll who would collaborate with him for thirty years. Sir Herbert Jekyll (Gertrude's father) commissioned him to design the British Pavilion for the Paris Exhibition following which country houses were drawn including; Orchards at Godalming, Goddards at Abinger, Grey Walls at Gullane, the Deanery Garden Sonning and Marsh Court at Stockbridge. Another commission was won when restoring Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island.

Eventually in 1897 Edwin married Lady Emily, third daughter of Lord Lytton (Viceroy of Delhi) although against the wishes of the family. They produced a son and four daughters yet the marriage was strange. Lady Emily became besotted by theosophy and her friend Mrs Besant yet while working in London Edwin now employed many pupils two of which worked in Devon between 1907-1910. Frederick Harrild would design the magnificent gardens at Glengorse (today Castle Tor) on the Lincombe's and Little Tor on  the Warberry's, while Oswald Milne another student designed Coleton Fishacre in 1924 for Rupert D'Oyly Carte following which Dartingtons Leonard Elmhirst asked Oswald to design a first school on his Dartington Estate.

Then the Founder of the Home and Colonial Stores in London Julius C Drewe commissioned Edwin to design a Castle at Drewsteignton, which eventually was a modern Manor House. Equipped with furniture, tapestries and china, Drogo Castle today sits atop a 586 acre estate often said to be the last private castle built in England. Lutyens also designed the Imperial War Graves Commission Ware Stone. Having two variants of Cross they are still used at public cemeteries today. Knighted in 1919 by PM Lloyd George MP,  he asked Sir Lutyens to create a "Catafalque" for Whitehall and now Sir Edwin created the "Cenotaph" still dominating in Whitehall.

On the completion of Castle Drogo Sir Edwin was given a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects while becoming a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission. An honorary degree from the University of Liverpool followed in 1928 before being appointed an Officer of France's Legion of Honour in 1932. Then came a DCL from Oxford University in 1934. With the Mallock family selling their estate to the Cockington Trust in 1932, Torquay now leased it as they wished to build a "new village around a village green with an Inn". When commissioned to design the Drum Inn at Cockington Sir Edwin lived in Torquay and yet eventually the Drum was not completed until 1936. Its sign "The Drum Inn" came courtesy of the famous British artist Dame Laura Knight. Sir Edwin's legacy was said to be "applying mathematical ratios to functional designs" yet having spent most of his career in Bloomsbury while latterly moving to Mansfield Street London, it was there he eventually died from bronchial sarcoma on 1st January 1944.