DRUMMOND, George Fairly (1891-1970) succeeded John S. Schofield as Chief Architect of Canadian National Railways in March 1948 and was responsible for overseeing the design and construction of all C.N.R railway stations, railway hotels, and railway office buildings in Canada from 1948 until his retirement in September 1956.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland on 10 September 1891, he studied architecture at the Royal Technical College and at the Glasgow School of Art. He emigrated to Canada in 1913 and joined the busy office of Kenneth G. Rea, a leading architect in Montreal, Que. He served overseas during WW1 with the Canadian Field Artillery, and then returned to Montreal, resuming his work with Kenneth Rea, and soon became chief assistant in that office. In October 1927 Drummond joined the architectural department of the Canadian National Railways in Montreal, and in 1929 was promoted to Assistant Architect, working under the supervision of John S. Schofield. He gained extensive knowledge of the planning and design of railway stations and hotels, and personally supervised the construction of the CNR hotels in Charlottetown (1930-31) and the CNR Stations in London, Ont. (1934-36), in Saskatoon (1938), and Central Station in Montreal (1942-43). In 1948 he was appointed Chief Architect for the CNR; his most significant work from the period was the modernist design for the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal (1956-58), a major post-war landmark which was carefully integrated with Central Station that he had helped to plan more than a decade earlier. Drummond retired from the C.N.R. in September 1956 and was succeeded by Harold C. Greensides who had joined the C.N.R. in 1940.
Drummond died at Lake Worth, Florida on 2 September 1970 (death notice Gazette [Montreal], 10 Sept. 1970, 39; biog. R.A.I.C. Journal, xix, July 1942, 157; xxvii, Nov. 1950, 392; biog. and port. Vancouver Sun, 27 May 1939, Section Two, p. 4; biog. & port. Engineering & Contract Record [Toronto], lv, 8 July 1942, 21; biog. and port. Canadian Transportation [Montreal], July 1942, 398; July 1943, 343; biog. and port. Canadian National Magazine [Montreal], xxxiv, April 1948, 14; Charlottetown Guardian, 15 March 1948, 5; biog. Canadian Architect, i, Oct. 1956, 10; inf. J. Norman Lowe, Canadian National Railways Archives, Montreal)
(works in Montreal unless noted)
INTERNATIONAL AVIATION BUILDING, Dorchester Boulevard West at Universty Street, adjacent to Central Station, 1948-50 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvii, Nov. 1950, 374-80, illus. & descrip.)
EDMONTON, ALTA., major addition to the MacDonald Hotel, 100th Street near Jasper Avenue, 1949-50 (C.R., lxii, March 1949, 140; and lxiii, March 1950, 142; Financial Post, 18 Feb. 1950, 7)
JASPER, ALTA., Jasper Park Lodge, 1952-53, a new hotel to replace the wood lodge destroyed by fire in July 1952 (Canadian Architect, Oct. 1956, 10, list of works)
QUEEN ELIZABETH HOTEL, Dorchester Boulevard West at Mansfield Street, 1956-58 (Canadian Architect, i, April 1956, 62-4, illus.; Batiment [Montreal], xxxiii, March 1958, 24-34, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C.Journal, xxxv, June 1958, 199-202, illus.; and July 1958, 246-54, illus.)