BETTS, Randolph Cotgrave (1902-1989), a native of Philadelphia, Penn., was born on 20 December 1902 and attended private schools in New York State. He moved to Montreal in 1921 and first studied commerce before enrolling in the Dept. of Architecture at McGill University where he graduated in 1928. He spent his summers working for Lawson & Little and Nobbs & Hyde and after graduation he spent four years in the office of John S. Archibald. In March 1935 he opened an office in Montreal under his own name and that same year completed an outstanding Tudor Revival mansion in Outremont for Severe Godin. He continued to practice alone until 1949 when he joined in partnership with Harold Lawson (see list of works under Lawson & Betts). Donald H. Cash joined the firm after 1950 as a third partner. Betts was elected President of the Prov. of Quebec Association of Architects in 1959 and retired after 1970. He died in Montreal on 28 November 1989 (death notice Gazette [Montreal], 29 Nov. 1989, F5; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects)
(works in Montreal unless noted)
OUTREMONT, mansion for Severe Godin, Maplewood Avenue, 1935 (Outremont b.p. 3045, 31 Aug. 1935; Montreal, Les Residences, 1987, 284-5, illus.)
HUDSON, QUE., Town Hall, c. 1936 (Parks Canada, Town Halls of Canada, 1987, 271)
TOWN OF MOUNT ROYAL, residence for Dr. J.W. Morton, Kenilworth Road at Stanstead Avenue, 1939 (C.R., lii, 12 April 1939, 106)
TOWN OF MOUNT ROYAL, residence on Portland Avenue near Caledonia Avenue, for an unnamed client, 1939 (Montreal Daily Star, 23 Sept. 1939, 24, descrip.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for Dr. Walter W. Read, 1941 (C.H.G., xix, Aug. 1942, 15, 40, illus.)
TOWN OF MOUNT ROYAL, residence for J.R. Godin, Morrison Avenue near Athlone Road, 1941 (Gazette [Montreal], 15 Sept. 1941, 21; inf. Scott Edwards)
HAMPSTEAD, residence for Jack E. Wright, 1942 (C.H.G., xix, Aug. 1942, 20, illus.)
KILMAR, QUE., laboratory for Canadian Refractories Ltd., 1942-43 (C.R., lv, 21 Oct. 1942, 54, t.c.)
TOWN OF MOUNT ROYAL, residence for M.F. Anderson, 1943 (C.H.G., xxi, March 1944, 23, illus.)
HAMPSTEAD, residence for A.T. Johnson, 1943 (C.H.G., xxi, March 1944, 22, illus.)
STE. AGATHE DES MONTS, QUE., residence for J.J. Green, 1945 (C.H.G., xxiii, March 1946, 25 illus.)
WESTMOUNT, residence for Jonathan Robinson, Olivier Avenue, 1946 (C.H.G., xxiii, Aug. 1946, 22, illlus.)
(with A.L. Perry) MOUNT ROYAL PROTESTANT HIGH SCHOOL, 1949-50 (C.R., lxii, Aug. 1949, 223; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxviii, May 1951, 136-7, illus.)