Arthur Benison Hubback

Arthur Benison Hubback (13 April 1871 – 8 May 1948) was a British architect and soldier who designed several important buildings in British Malaya. He was active in sports, especially football and cricket.^[1] Hubback was promoted to Brigadier General during his service in the British Army.^[2]

Early life

Arthur Hubback was born in Liverpool, England, in 1871, son of Joseph Hubback (1814–1882), who was Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1870 and a merchant, and Georgina (born Eliott-Lockhart). Arthur attended Fettes College, Edinburgh, and then started work for the city architect in Liverpool.^[3]

Malaya

In 1895, Hubback became chief draughtsman of Selangor public works department, which was then working on the government offices that are now Sultan Abdul Samad Building. After work on the building was finished in 1897, he worked in private practice for a few years, returning to public work in 1901. From then until the outbreak of World War I was a period of great construction projects, and he worked on buildings in Malaya and Hong Kong, from mosques to railway stations.^[3]

Military service

Hubback took charge in the Federated Malay States Volunteer Rifles Force (M.S.V.R.) in 1907. He was appointed as a Major in the M.S.V.R. in 1910 and he was in command of F.M.S. Contingent to George V's coronation in 1911. He was then promoted as Lt. Colonel in the M.S.V.R. in 1912. In 1914, at the start of World War I, he became a major in the 19th battalion, London (territorial) regiment. In 1915, he was the Lt. Colonel commanding the 20th London Regiment Territorial Force, 47th Division B.E.F. He served in France, The Soanne, Brigadier of 19th and 20th London Battalion.He became Brigadier General of 2nd Infantry Brigade, 1st Division in 1916, and Brigadier General Co. of the 63rd Infantry Brigade, 37th Division B.E.F. in 1918. During the war he was mentioned in dispatches six times, and won the CMG and Distinguished Service Order. Following the war he continued in the military, commanding the 5th London infantry brigade of the territorial army from 1920 to 1924.^[3]

Family

Hubback married Margaret Rose Frances (Daisy) Voules, the sister of a colleague, in 1901 and they had two children, a son (Arthur Gordon VoulesHubback, R.N.) and a daughter (Yvonne Hubback).^[3]

He had two brothers. Theodore Rathbone Hubback (1872–1944?) joined Arthur in Malaya, and was a civil engineer and contractor, as well as working for a while as a rubber planter, and after early adventures as a big game hunter became a conservationist and author. George Clay Hubback (1882–1955) was bishop of Assam and of Calcutta.

He died in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on 8 May 1948 of heart failure.^[3]

Buildings

Hubback worked on the buildings including:

• (1894–1897)
  • Federal Secretariat(Sultan Abdul Samad Building), doing some work on A.C. Norman's design
• 1901
  • Carcosa, Kuala Lumpur
• 1904
  • Municipal Office & Town Hall, Kuala Lumpur (Sanitary Board/Town Hall)^[4]
• 1905
  • F.M.S Central Railways Offices, Kuala Lumpur^[5]
  • Shop Houses on Old Market Square, Kuala Lumpur^[6]
• 1906
  • Residence of High Commissioner, Kuala Kangsar
  • Selangor Museum, Kuala Lumpur. Rebuilt, (National Museum)
• 1907
  • F.M.S Railways Terminal Office, Penang (Wisma Kastam – Malayan Railway Building)^[7]
  • General Post Office, Kuala Lumpur^[8]
• 1909
  • Jamek Mosque, Kuala Lumpur^[9]
  • The Big School Malay College, Kuala Kangsar (Malay College Kuala Kangsar)^[10]
  • The White House of Klang (The Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery)^[11]
• 1910
  • Andersons Boy School, Ipoh^[12]
  • Railway Station & Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
  • Selangor Club 1910, Kuala Lumpur (Royal Selangor Club)
  • Federal Survey Office, Kuala Lumpur
• 1911
  • Kuala Lumpur main railway station^[13]
  • Federal Lunatic Asylum, Tanjung Rambutan, Ipoh (renamed Central Mental Hospital and subsequently renamed in 1970 Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta)^[14]
  • The White House of Klang (The Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery)^[15]
• 1912
  • British Residency, Seremban (Kompleks Kraf Negeri Sembilan [Handicraft Centre])^[16]
  • Preparatory School, Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) – Prep School, Kuala Kangsar, Perak
• 1913
  • Kowloon railway station, Hong Kong
• 1914
  • Selangor Museum (Extension & alteration) Kuala Lumpur
• 1915
  • Supreme Court, Kuala Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur High Court)
• 1916
  • Town Hall and Post Office, Ipoh^[16]
• 1917
  • Idris Memorial Mosque, Kuala Kangsar (Ubudiah Mosque)^[16]
  • Malay Railway Administration Building, Kuala Lumpur (Kuala Lumpur Railway Station)
• 1920
  • Railway Station & Hotel, Ipoh (Ipoh Railway Station)^[17]

Source Included From: A.B Hubback: An Architectural Celebration in Malaya Exhibition. Located at National Textile Museum, Kuala Lumpur.
Jointly Organized by PAM Heritage Conservation Committee, Department of Museums Malaysia and National Textile Museum Officially Supported by Masjid Jamek, British Council, Arch, webmaster of thehubbacks.org, midor, ALFO, MIBOUTIQUE and Kuala Lumpur.

Honours

• 1905 Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects^[3]
• 1909 Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects^[3]
• 1913 Honorary Diocesan Architect for the Diocese of Singapore^[18]
• 1916 Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George^[3]
• 1918 Distinguished Service Order.^[3]

Sports

Hubback play the following sport:^[19]

• 2 June 1894 – Plays Cricket for Liverpool in the Liverpool vs. Birkenhead Park match, Aighburth Liverpool.
• 9 September 1896 – Makes his first century in cricket
• 4 February 1897 – Plays cricket in Selangor vs. Singapore match.
• 24th–25th October 1897 – Takes leave to play for the Straits Settlements Cricket Team in a Cricket Festival in Hong Kong.
• 8 November 1897 – Plays in the Interport matches: 1897/98 Hong Kong and Shanghai vs. Straits Settlements, Hong Kong Cricket Club Ground, Hong Kong
• 14 November 1897 – Plays in the Interport matches: 1897/98 Hong Kong and Shanghai vs. Straits Settlements, Hong Kong Cricket Club Ground, Hong Kong.
• November 1899 – Represents F.M.S in a cricket match in Burma.
• 4 February 1905 – Plays in Straits Settlements in F.M.S cricket match, F.M.S vs. Straits Settlements at the Padang Kuala Lumpur.
• 1906– Captains the F.M.S team in a cricket match in Burma
• 16 August 1906 – Cricket match, F.M.S in Straits in Straits Settlements 1906, Straits Settlement vs. Federated Malays States at the Padang, Singapore.
• 30 March 1907 – Plays in Straits Settlements in Federated Malay States 1906/07
• 5 August 1907 – Plays in F.M.S in Straits Settlements 1907 cricket match, Straits Settlements vs. F.M.S at Penang Cricket Club Ground, Penang.
• 31 July 1908 – Plays in F.M.S inStraits Settlements cricket match 1908, Straits Settlements vs. Federated Malay States, The Pedang, Singapore.
• 30 January 1911 – Plays in Straits Settlements in Federated Malay States cricket match 1910/11, F.M.S vs. Straits Settlements, The Pedang Kuala Lumpur.

The significance of Hubback’s work

Hubback’s architectural work, on the one hand, is rooted in 19th-century eclectic historicism. He took Mughal forms and melded them with Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic details to form a ‘new’ kind of architecture known as Indo-Saracenic. Hubback was following in the design direction set by his predecessor A.C.A. Norman.^[20] This strand of English colonial architecture was based on Indian Islamic architecture, although it was not really authentic to either place, India or Malaya. Hubback crafted his designs in Malaya a few years before Edwin Lutyens created his for New Delhi. Hubback effectively introduced into the Malaysian architectural vocabulary the onion dome. His principal building formed the perimeter of the Padang or Merdeka Square, and became a symbol of the colonial administration. The Federal Secretariat/Sultan Abdul Samad Building is as much a part of the architectural consciousness of Malaysia as the Houses of Parliament is to Britain.^[21]

The twentieth-century quality of his architectural output is that he created a number of large buildings to house the colonial government's administrative functions, an architectural recognition of the increasing spatial demands of an official bureaucracy, although in exceedingly elegant dress. While in post-independence Malaysia these functions have moved elsewhere, the buildings remain as a potent visual symbol of the country and its multicultural heritage.

References

External links

• Photographs in the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Hubback brothers tribute website