Smith, John Roxborough | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada

SMITH, John Roxborough (1881-1975), a native of Greenock, Scotland, was born there on 10 August 1881 and articled with the Glasgow firm of Clarke & Bell from 1899 to 1904 while studying architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. He moved to Canada in 1904 and within days secured a position with the leading Montreal firm of Edward & William S. Maxwell. He spent the next ten years in their office assisting with important commissions including the Legislative Buildings in Regina and the Montreal Art Gallery. It was here that he met J. Cecil McDougall, with whom he was to later form a partnership. He had a keen interest in painting and helped establish the P.Q.A.A. Sketching Club as well as the Atelier Maxwell at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Montreal. In 1913 he went to Europe to travel and attend classes at the Atelier Hebrard in Paris, then returned to Montreal in 1916 and worked as a draftsman for Fetherstonhaugh & McDougall until 1923. When McDougall opened his own office that year he asked Smith to join him as chief assistant, but it was not until 1947 that their collaboration was formalized in the partnership of McDougall, Fleming & Smith. Smith taught night classes in architectural drawing at the Montreal Technical Institute for nearly twenty-five years and was elected President of the Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects in 1941. He frequently exhibited his watercolours and sketches at annual exhibits of the Royal Canadian Academy, to which he was nominated a member in 1952. He also collaborated with Henri Hebert, the prominent Montreal sculptor, on the design of the Outremont War Memorial (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxi, June 1935, 94, illus.) and the La Fontaine Monument in Montreal. Smith died in Montreal on 12 July 1975 (death notice Gazette [Montreal], 14 July 1975, 34; biog. and port. R.A.I.C. Journal, xix, Jan. 1942, 10; xxvii, March 1950, 76; R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, ii, 646)