FINDLAY, Francis Robert (1888-1977), son of Robert Findlay, a leading architect in Montreal, Que. Francis was born in Montreal on 26 May 1888 and received his early education at Westmount Academy. He was sent to the United States to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and graduated in 1912. He then returned to Montreal to train in the office of his father, and during WWI he served overseas with Canadian forces, then rejoined his father upon his return in 1918. In 1922 he was invited by his father to form a new partnership of Robert & F.R. Findlay, Architects, and they remained active until 1941 when Robert Findlay retired (see list of works under Findlay, Robert & F.R.) .
Francis R. continued a limited independent practise until 1959 where he was employed by Defense Industries Ltd. from 1941 to 1953, and then as a staff architect with Thomas Pringle Ltd. Findlay was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1941, and later died in Montreal on 10 April 1977 (obituary Gazette [Montreal], 11 April 1977, 36). The Canadian Architecture Collection at McGill University holds a small collection of drawings by F.R. Findlay from 1934 to 1964 (McGill Univ., C.A.C. Acc. No. 3.03; Kathryn A. Jackson, Canadian Architecture Coll.: A Guide to the Archives, 1993, p. 47). A photographic portrait and biography of F.R. Findlay was published in the Montreal Daily Star, 27 Jan. 1941, 3.
WESTMOUNT, residence for the architect Francis R. Findlay, Upper Lansdowne Avenue near Sunnyside Avenue, c. 1924 (Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art [London], 1924, 30, illus.; inf. Janet Findlay, Montreal)
WESTMOUNT, two detached houses at 730-732 Lexington Avenue, near Sunnyside Avenue, c. 1926 (inf. Janet Findlay, Montreal)
LAKE CHAPLEAU, QUE., Old Brewery Mission Summer Camp (dwgs. at McGill Univ.)
WESTMOUNT, St. Andrew's United Church, alterations (dwgs. at McGill Univ.)
GRAND MERE, QUE., alterations to Bethel United Church (dwgs. at McGill Univ.)
LAKE ANNE, QUE., additions and alterations to summer house for C.V. Howard (dwgs. at McGill Univ.)