Joseph Lea Gleave RSA 1907-1965

The Royal Scottish Academy has sustained a great loss by the death of J. L. Gleave. He was brilliant Architect whose reputation stretched far beyond the borders of Scotland, and he was one of the Academy's most outstanding Members.

Joe Gleave was born in Manchester in 1907 and trained at the Man- chester University School of Architecture. At the age of 23 he won the International Architectural Competition for the Memorial to Christopher Columbas to be erected in the Dominican Republic.

He received the Honorary Degree of M.A. from Manchester University in 1932, and in the same year became Senior Assistant at the School of Architecture, Edinburgh, where he was Head of the School, and that of Town Planning, from 1935 to 1948, with the exception of the War years.

Joe Gleave was considered by many to be the most eminent teacher of Architecture in the country at that time. After distinguished service during the War, when he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in A. A, Command, he returned to Architecture and in 1948 went to Glasgow to join the late Graham Henderson in an old-established practice, subsequently known as John Keppie and Henderson and J.L. Gleave.

He was then mainly engaged on housing at East Kilbride, School and University work, including the redecoration of the Bute Hall of Glasgow University. He also designed the General Hospital at Vaie of Leven, Dunbartonshire, the first large Post-War Hospital in this country.

Early in 1958 he began his own practice. His work included the recently opened Air Terminal Buildings at Prestwick and the Queen Mother's Hospital, Yorkhill, Glasgow, and he was engaged on work on a comprehensive development area in Glasgow, Hospitals at Fort William and Inverness, tlie (County isuildings, Tu, crneéss, and various School works.

He was Consultant Architect to Glasgow University for the Hillhead area of the city and was a Member of the Panel advising Edinburgh Corpor- ation on the development of Princes Street and the Central Area of Edin- burgh. Mr. Gleave was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1953 and became a full Academician in 1959.

He was also a Member of the Royal Fine Arts Commission for Scotland, the Historic Buildings Council, and the Town Planning Institute, and a former Member of the Councils of the Royal Institution of British Architects and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

He served on many Committees and often acted as external examiner for the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was a past President of the Society of Scottish Artists. Joe Gleave died in a Glasgow Hospital on 16th January, 1965, and is survived by his wife and son and daughter.

Transcribed from the 1965 RSA Annual Report