Ninian Comper

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Sir John Ninian Comper, (June 10, 1864 – December 22, 1960), was a Scottish architect. He was one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects, noted for his churches and their furnishings. He is well-known for his stained glass, his use of colour and his subtle integration of Classical and Gothic elements.

[edit] Career

Comper was born in Aberdeen, the eldest of five children of Ellen and the Reverend John Comper, Rector of St Margaret of Scotland. He was educated at Glenalmond School in Perthshire and attended a year at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. On moving to London, he was articled to Charles Eamer Kempe, and later to George Frederick Bodley and Thomas Garner.

His commissions include a line of windows in the north wall of the nave of Westminster Abbey; At St Peter's Parish Church, Huddersfield baldachino/ciborium, high altar and east window in memory of the dead of the Great War; St Mary's, Wellingborough; St Michael and All Angels, Inverness; the Lady Chapel at Downside Abbey, Somerset; the ciborium and House Chapel extension for the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Oxford (now St Stephen's House, Oxford) and St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, London. Comper is noted for re-introducing the 'English altar', an altar surrounded by riddel posts. Comper designed a number of remarkable altar screens (reredos), inspired by medieval originals. Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, has one of the finest examples.

Rood screen in Wymondham Abbey, designed by Comper

Comper was knighted by King George VI in 1950. In 1960, he died in The Hostel of God, now Trinity Hospice, in Clapham. His ashes are buried beneath the windows he designed in Westminster Abbey.