Walter Sykes George
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Walter Sykes George (1881-1962) was an English architect who was active in India during the first half of the 20th century. He was born in a family of Quaker architects and brought up in East Anglia and Manchester, where he worked in the family's architectural pratice. Later, he studied under A. Beresford Pite and W. R. Lethaby at the Royal College of Art, London, and won the Soane Scholarship in 1906. From 1906 to 1911 he worked with the British School at Athens and joined several excavations, a result of which was his 1913 monograph, The Church of St Eirene at Constantinople.
He then joined Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker, in helping design the capital complex of New Delhi which was chosen by the British Government in 1912 to be the new capital of India. The project was completed in 1929 and officially inaugurated in 1931. Of the many talented British architects associated with the building of the new capital enclave, only Walter George elected to stay on and establish a private practice in Delhi. In the 1930s he took on the job designing of the new campus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, a project that was completed in 1941.
At this time there were few architects active in Delhi and the two existing schools for training architects in India were in Bombay and Baroda. The outbreak of World War II generated a sudden demand for engineer-architects by the Allied forces; consequently, Walter George and his colleagues helped establish the first training facility for architects in North India. The Department of Architecture came into existence as part of the Delhi Polytechnic at Kashmiri Gate in 1942.
After independence, a comprehensive curriculum was designed and the first batch of students received their National Diplomas in Architecture in 1950. The building of the city of Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier was a powerful magnet for many fresh graduates. Meanwhile, other young Indian architects and planners were returning home to participate in nation building after postgraduate studies abroad. George took a keen interest in their welfare and helped them organise themselves, one result of which was the creation of the Institute of Town Planners (India) (ITPI), in 1951.
Walter Sykes George died in Delhi on 7 January 1962.
