Ninian Johnston RSA 1912-1990

Having started as an office boy for the firm of Alfred Lochhead, he won a scholarship to attend full-time classes at Glasgow School of Art.

On qualifying in 1937, he took up employment as an assistant with George A. Boswell. After a break from 1940-1946, which was spent serving in India with the Royal Engineers, he returned to the firm of Boswell Mitchell as a partner. By 1950 the firm had been re-styled Boswell Mitchell & Johnston, and Ninian Johnston remained a partner until he retired in 1976.

After his retirement, Ninian and his wife, Helen, moved to the Gloucestershire hamlet of Compton Abdale in the Cotswolds in the search for a more temperate climate to ease the problems of failing health. The first work exhibited by Ninian Johnston at the R.S.A. Annual Exhibitions was his design for Dunoon Pavilion and Concert Hall in 1954.

During the later 1950’s as part of a scheme to rehabilitate Glasgow after the Second World War, Boswell, Mitchell & Johnston was appointed to design two huge developments, each of approximately 1,500 dwellings, in the Pollockshaws and Woodside areas of Glasgow. These combined high-rise and low-rise buildings, and included walkways and amenity areas.

Also from the late 1950’s onwards, Ninian Johnston worked closely with various Scottish education authorities. As a result of the post-war population boom there was an urgent need for more schools. Some were upgraded or rebuilt, such as Hutcheson Boys’ Grammar School and Queens Park Secondary School in Glasgow, and others were entirely new, such as primary schools in Cumbernauld.

Between 1960 and 1975 Ninian Johnston built 15 schools for Glasgow Corporation alone. Slightly later, in the 1960’s and 1970's, he carried out residence for colleges of higher education such as Hamilton College and Aberdeen College of Education. As well as these housing and educational schemes, Ninian Johnston received commissions for industrial and commercial projects.

He carried out work on industrial estates at Queenslie, Springburn, Falkirk and Greenock, and he built, for example, shops for Mother care at Glasgow, Paisley and Ayr. In recognition of his work as an architect Ninian Johnston held various positions. From 1955 to 1958 he was President of the Glasgow Institute of Architects.

In 1959 he was elected A.R.S.A. and in 1966 he was elected R.S.A. He also served as a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland from 1969 to 1976. After his move to the Cotswolds, Ninian Johnston undertook commissions to design church fittings and he painted the local churches and other buildings in the Gloucestershire countryside.

As well as being a fine artist, he was regarded as an architect's architect who always strove for quality of design and professional integrity.

Transcribed from the 1990 RSA Annual Report