Henry Austin Wilshire

Henry Austin Wilshire (HA Wilshire) was an architect and was a prominent member of Sydney society in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Although he is not generally well known, he was an active and innovative architect, and a contributor to the community with interests in town planning and transport issues.

Wilshire was born in Potts Point (Sydney) on 8 September 1860, into one of Sydney's oldest and best-connected families. He was the youngest child of James Robert Wilshire MLC, Sydney's second elected mayor,^[1] who had died the week before Henry was born. His mother, Sarah Wilshire, lived until 1912, a well-regarded, active member of the community.^[2] The family moved to Burwood around 1880. In 1888 Wilshire married Hephzibah Maude Stewart, and they had one daughter, Lena, born in 1889.^[3] They moved to the Mosman/Cremorne area in 1893, and remained there for 30 years until Henry's death on 6 August 1923.^[4] During this period they lived in at least seven different residences, at least three of which were designed by Wilshire.

Wilshire began his architectural career in around 1879, articled to the well-known Mansfield Brothers.^[5] As an architect he was very active and versatile, designing many residences and other buildings. For most of his 44-year career he was a sole practitioner, However, for a brief period in 1888-1889 he partnered with George Taylor Shaw and, from 1913 until his death in 1923, was in partnership with Mark Cooper Day,^[6] trading as HA Wilshire and Day.^[7][8] Numerous of his works still exist today, including at least 13 that are listed on the NSW Heritage Register (see below).

His buildings include Grafton Gaol^[9] in 1891, the heritage-listed Bennett and Wood (Speedwell bicycles) building in Sydney in 1908,^[10] and Warringah Hall (see eg Ajax Films), Neutral Bay in 1910.^[11] The Grafton community had been agitating for many years for a new gaol to be constructed and, following the first competition for the design of a NSW public building, Wilshire was awarded first prize of 100 guineas, and was given the task of instigating its construction.^[12] The building is now heritage listed. (It was reported that he also won fourth prize in the same competition, and had earlier won second prize for a design for the Brisbane premises of the Royal Bank of Queensland and third prize for the Thomas Walker Hospital (Rivendell Child, Adolescent and Family Unit) in Concord, Sydney.)

Wilshire was an active member of the profession, being a member of the (then) Institute of Architects of New South Wales from at least the late 1880s. He was a member of the Committee of the Institute on various occasions from 1893 through to 1919, and held a number of executive positions including Vice-President (1897–1899) and Honorary Treasurer (1901).

In the early 1890s, the Mosman/Cremorne/Neutral Bay area was a hive of residential development activity, largely as a result of the introduction of the steam ferry service connecting the area to Sydney.^[13] Wilshire moved to the area at this time presumably with the intention of involving himself in (and profiting from) this development. James Thompson Wilshire and John Matcham Wilshire (Henry's half-brother and cousin, respectively) also moved from Burwood to Neutral Bay/Cremorne around the same time – and presumably with similar intentions – and lived close to each other and to Henry for the rest of their lives. James, particularly, amassed a significant property portfolio prior to his death in 1909.

In 1904 Henry Wilshire and his wife undertook an overseas tour, including to the UK and the USA. On their return he designed a number of flat-roofed houses, located in the Mosman/Neutral Bay area,^[14] two of which are listed on the NSW Heritage Register. At least eight such houses were built, of which five were erected prior to 1908, one in 1910, and the other two in 1912 and 1914. Seven of the houses were/are located close to each other in Cremorne and Neutral Bay, and the eighth is in Mosman. Five of these houses are known to still exist, though one no longer has a flat roof. One of the houses (unfortunately no longer in existence), in Bannerman St Neutral Bay, was the home of the remarkable architecture/town planning/publishing couple, George Augustine Taylor and Florence Mary Taylor for some years following their marriage in 1907. In 1914 Wilshire travelled again to the USA, this time to investigate the latest methods for the use of steel and concrete in construction.

Wilshire shared the Victorian era fascination with technology and invention. In 1894 he and E E Tournay-Hinde were granted a patent for a form of water crossing consisting of submerged iron tubes for pedestrian or vehicular traffic^[15] and, in the same year, they developed an innovative proposal to replace the old Pyrmont Bridge (Sydney) with a tunnel.^[16] In 1888 he, along with George Taylor Shaw, applied for a patent for a 'portable and floating swimming bath',^[17] and in 1911 he acquired the rights^[18] to a 'rotary excavator' invented by his cousin Henry Rawes Whittell.^[19] In 1906 he wrote to the SMH advocating the use of automatic telephones (as he had seen in the US)^[20] and, in 1921 wrote again, expressing the then 'modern' view that government money would be better used constructing a good regional road system rather than railways.^[21]

Wilshire was very active in the community. In 1893 he wrote to Mosman Council, proposing to construct a horse-tramway from the ferry wharf up to Military Road. He built one of the first houses^[22] at Palm Beach, New South Wales in 1913, which became his preferred residence until his health deteriorated around 1922.^[23] He was involved in the development of the area, including laying out and developing the golf course in the early 1920s.^[24] (In this project he worked with Sydney merchant Charles Crossman, later president of Palm Beach Golf Club. In 1903 Wilshire had designed a residence for Crossman, 'Ingleneuk' which, having been restored by Clive Lucas a century later,^[25] still stands in Neutral Bay, now the residence of the well-known Sydney couple Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons.) He was also an active member of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, including serving as a vice-president and trustee.^[26] Towards the end of WWI, 'Furlough House'^[27] was established at Narrabeen, a Sydney beachside suburb, to provide holidays for wives and children of servicemen. Wilshire designed the buildings (without fee), and served on the Board of Management.^[28]

Over the course of his career he undertook a number of commissions for the Anglican Church, including designing the parsonage for the newly established St Clements Church, Mosman, in 1894,^[29] the Church of St James at Ingleburn/Minto in 1897 (pro bono),^[30][31] St Albans in Lindfield in 1904^[32] and, in 1916, having submitted the winning design in a competition organised by the Synod of the Sydney Archdiocese of the Church of England,^[33] significant extensions and alterations to the Chapter House at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney,^[34] He also did commissions for other denominations: in 1886, he designed the Sunday School for the Ashfield Wesleyan (now Uniting) Church,^[35] now the headquarters for Bill Crews's Exodus Foundation,^[36] and in 1921 designed the manse for the now heritage-listed St John's (Uniting) Church in Neutral Bay.

Works by Henry Wilshire included in the NSW Heritage Register

Notes and references