CROMARTY, William David (1884-1960) was born in Liverpool, Engl. on 12 December 1884 and was educated and trained there. He was employed as staff architect by the Glenmorgan County Council in Wales in 1908-09, then spent two years in Khartoum, Sudan (in 1910-11). He returned to England, then emigrated to Canada where he worked briefly in Vernon, B.C. in partnership with Otto Hatchard, as Hatchard & Cromarty, Architects (Vernon News, 22 June 1911, 1). He then moved to Edmonton in 1912 and joined the Alberta Assoc. of Architects on 9 September 1912. That year, he was briefly in partnership with James C. Teague of Calgary and acted as his local representative in Edmonton. Cromarty practiced under his own name in Edmonton in 1913-15, and joined the teaching staff at the newly formed Dept. of Architecture at the University of Alberta that had been created in 1913 by Cecil S. Burgess. In 1916 Cromarty moved to Ottawa and worked for the federal government designing military hospitals. He was involved in design work for the Soldiers Resettlement Programme in 1919, and the following year was employed by the Dept. of the Interior, to which he was later appointed Director of the Town Planning Division of the Parks Branch in 1921. He was one of the finalists in the competition for the Laurier Memorial in Ottawa (C.R., xxxv, 23 Feb. 1921, 200). Cromarty assisted Thomas Adams in planning and designing the new Ottawa housing subdivision of Lindenlea, and wrote extensively on the subject of post-war town planning (Const., xiii, Oct. 1920, 302-09, 328, illus.). When the federal Department of the Interior was renamed the Architectural Division in 1928, Cromarty was appointed its Chief Architect.
From this time until 1936 he played an important role in the design of all buildings in Canada's National Parks, the plans for which were either prepared or approved by Cromarty and his staff. His most notable work which can be attributed to him during this period was the Upper Hot Springs Bath Houses at Banff, Alta., 1931-32. When the Division was disbanded in 1936 Cromarty became head of the Historic Sites Division, and continued to influence the design process for buildings in the National Parks. He subsequently established an architectural design unit within the Historic Parks & Sites Branch which was to form the nucleus of the Restoration Services Division. Cromarty continued to serve as head the Historic Parks & Sites Division until 1950. He died in St. Catharines, Ont. on 12 April 1960 (obituary St. Catharines Standard, 12 April 1960, 2; obituary Ottawa Journal, 25 April 1960, 38; inf. Ted Mills, Vancouver; inf. Mr. Justice J.D. Cromarty, Toronto).
EDMONTON
GARNEAU, residence for the Duggan Building & Investment Co. Ltd., 1913 (Edmonton Journal 10th Anniversary Number, 1913, 119, illus.)
WILSON & HUGHES CO., factory, 1913 (Edmonton b.p. 929, 1913; dwgs. Edmonton City Archives)
KINISTINO AVENUE, commercial block for E.S. McQuaid, with store and public hall, 1913 (Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 29 August 1913, 8)
DUNSTON APARTMENTS, Stony Plain Road at 27th Street, 1913-14 (Edmonton Daily Bulletin, 18 Nov. 1913, 9, descrip.)
CLELAND BLOCK, a commercial block for Robert Cleland, 1914 (Edmonton b.p. 97, 1914; dwgs. Edmonton City Archives)
ELSEWHERE
PEACE RIVER, ALTA., Royal North West Mounted Police Detachment Buildings, including Superintendent's House, Administration Building, Inspector's House, stables and jail barracks, 1917 (inf. Murray Cook, Peace River Museum)
OTTAWA, ONT., prototypical plans for several small houses 'for the Housing Committee of the Cabinet of Canada', 1919 (Builder [London], cxvii, 11 July 1919, plate illus.)
OTTAWA, ONT., residence for John Petry [sic], perhaps John Petrie, Middleton Drive, in the Lindenlea neighbourhood, c. 1925 (dwgs. Ottawa City Archives, RG1, Ottawa Housing Commission Papers)
BANFF, ALTA., Upper Hot Springs Bath House, 1931-32 (Canada, Sessional Papers, Annual Report of the Dept. of the Interior, 1932, 72-3, 75, descrip., but lacking attribution)