RANKIN, Thomas Davidson (1889-1969), active in Toronto, Ont. as a member of the firm of Darling & Pearson, Architects, and author of a memoir about his years within that firm entitled 'Reminiscences of Leader Lane' (R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, June 1941, 98). Born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 20 July 1889 he attended evening classes in architecture at the College of Art there while working full time in the office of Sir Robert Lorimer, a leading figure in Scottish architecture at the turn of the century. He spent six years with Lorimer (1906-12), then two years with J. Dick Peddie (1912-13) before emigrating to Canada in late 1913. Rankin took a position at The Canadian Bank of Commerce as assistant to Victor Horsburgh (in 1913-15), and joined Darling & Pearson in 1915, remaining there for the duration of his career. In 1938 he worked as supervising architect (and likely staff designer) on the major addition to the Mutual Life Assurance Office Building, Waterloo, Ont. Rankin retired from the O.A.A. in January 1962, and later died in Toronto on 9 December 1969 (obituary Ottawa Journal, 11 Dec. 1969, 2; inf. from Ontario Assoc. of Architects). His name should not be confused with Thomas Dunlop Rankin, another architect who was active in Ottawa during this period.
(with John A. Pearson) WATERLOO, ONT., major addition to the Mutual Life Assurance Office Building, 1938 (Kitchener Daily Record, 28 July 1938, 3, descrip.; C.R., li, 8 June 1938, 37; Financial Post [Toronto], 27 Aug. 1938, 14, illus. & descrip.).