BRISLEY, Ernest Frederick Ross (1906-1985), of New Liskeard in northern Ontario was active there from before 1930 until after 1940 when he moved to Toronto and joined the office F. Bruce Brown, who was an architect and son of John Francis Brown. Their office then became :
F. Bruce Brown & Brisley, Architects 1946-1962
Brown, Brisley & Brown, Architects, 1962-1972 (consisting of the father F. Bruce Brown, his son Douglas B. Brown, and E.F. Ross Brisley) .
Douglas B. Brown, Architect 1972-1980
Brown, Beck & Ross, Architects, 1981-1991 (with Douglas B. Brown, Frederick W. Beck and Murray R. Ross)
Brisley was born at Chicago, Ill. on 29 May 1906 and was educated in Toronto. He trained with the firm of John Francis Brown in the late 1920's and early 1930's, but moved to New Liskeard, Ontario to work as a draftsman with Hill, Clark & Francis, a large contractor and building company there. His lengthy essay on the state of architecture in Northern Ontario was published in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiv, March 1947, 102-03. After the death of John Francis Brown in 1942, his son F. Bruce Brown asked Brisley to return to Toronto to assist with many projects in that office, and Brisley became a full partner there from 1946 to 1962. Both F. Bruce Brown and Ross Brisley retired from architectural practise in 1972, and E.F.R. Brisley later died in Toronto in 1985 (inf. Douglas B. Brown, Toronto)
NEW LISKEARD, ONT., residence for the Manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia, 1938 (dwgs. at Bank of Nova Scotia Archives, Toronto, File Box 156)
COMPETITIONS
ONTARIO, The Ideal Ontario Home Competition, sponsored by T. Eaton Co. Department Stores, 1930. Brisley was one of 239 architects, draftsmen and architectural students from across Canada who submitted a design in this ideas competition while he was working in Montreal (Sault Daily Star [Sault Ste. Marie], 22 March 1930, 2; Const., xxiii, April 1930, 140, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, vii, April 1930, 150, illus.; C.H.G., vii, Sept. 1930, 36, illus.). For his effort, he was awarded a Merit Prize of $250. The winner was Harold Savage of Toronto.
CANADA, Dominion Housing Act Small House Competition, 1936. A total of 526 designs were sent in from architects across Canada. The design by Brisley submitted in this national competition was presented in a traditional Colonial Revival style (Design No. 353, published in the 1936 Dominion Housing Act Competition, p. 58, illus.). The winner of this competition was William Ralston of Toronto.